The death of Bob McCutcheon is a sore loss
for the new City of Stirling.
For many visitors to the town in decades past, Bob McCutcheon and his antiquarian bookshop, first in the Craigs, then Spittal Street, and latterly Baker Street, were
Stirling. It was a Mecca for bibliophiles, and a reference point for anyone with an inquiry on any aspect of Stirling or Stirlingshire. Bob was the oracle for the history of the town, and had a great talent for communicating his knowledge.
With his flowing beard and long hair, he had an Old Testament appearance and dispensed his information and advice with wit and wisdom.
A visit to McCutcheon's bookshop was an experience in itself. Apart from the stacks of rich stock, the shop was crammed with local memorabilia, prints, displays of rare chap-books, paintings, and a bust of Sir Walter Scott. It was a place of exchange for local news, tourist information, family history and research, and it was graced by a resident cat.
As a book dealer, Bob McCutcheon was a connoisseur, and he and his wife Barbara sourced stock which was both rare and of quality. He knew the content of his stock, and his customers. He could advise with authority on purchase and acquisition. He built up an unrivalled private collection of Stirling photographs and memorabilia, which he loaned to local museums and community history groups. Over a period of years, he and his wife were historical advisers to several major exhibitions at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum.
At a time when there was less interest in local history publishing, Bob McCutcheon published works of significance and durability. These include Notes for a New History of Stirling (1985), Stirling's Neebour Villages (1986), and Pictures from the Past (1989).
In 1986, he wrote the history of the Stirling Observer for its 150th anniversary, and his recent book on Stirling
(Tempus 2000) is a model of good practice in social history publishing.
He was an historian of merit. He could never have been a career or establishment historian for he pursued his research with love and enthusiasm and without counting the cost. He knew the by-ways of history that the career historian could never be bothered with - the finer details of the 1820 Rising and the execution of Baird
and Hardie, the logistics of the field of Bannockburn, the fixtures and fittings of an 1850s prison cell.
As a bookseller and publisher, Bob McCutcheon was straddling the tradition of two cultural forbears in Stirling. One was Aneas Mackay, the printer and publisher (d.1922) whose lists must have been bigger than those of HarperCollins at one time. The other was William Cameron (d.1851), the chapbook publisher, raconteur
and wit, who was known
to Glaswegians as Hawkie,
the Trongate Demosthenese. Hawkie, like Bob, was born in Plean, but is remembered today as a Glasgow character.
Bob McCutcheon has been called a Stirling character,
but he was much more than that. In his life, he characterised Stirling - all that is good, honest, and culturally worth while in this old royal burgh and new city.
Bob McCutcheon, antiquarian bookseller, publisher,
historian; born October 21, 1939, died August 31, 2002.
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