60444: Colonial visits Uig

Excerpt from Stornoway Gazette and West Coast Advertiser, Local and District News.

30 August, 1918: Another Colonial’s Visit

Last week, Pte. Norman MacAulay J MacKenzie, New Zealand contingent, paid a visit to this district. He came to France three years ago and spent some time in hospital through shell shock, but is now convalescing and having a short leave. He has been looking up his friends and relatives in Uig and visiting the old haunts of his mother’s ancestors.

One of these left Uig over a hundred years ago whilst one of his father’s ancestors, who had been evicted from house and home during the Sutherland clearances, left about the same time. Neither his father or his mother ever saw Scotland but Scottish traditions, reminiscences and customs were kept alive in the household. Gaelic was the only language spoken in the family and Norman, in common with the rest of the children, knew no English ’till he went to school. He is a fluent speaker in both languages. Like a true MacAulay, he intended paying a visit to Islivig and Breanish – a pilgrimage to their Mecca, the cradle of the MacAulays of Lewis.