Jean Heaton, choral singer; born September 24, 1902, died August 15, 1998.
BORN in Dennistoun, Glasgow, Janet Pollok Shields (always known as Jean) was the second youngest child of a fairly large family. Educated in Dennistoun, she left school to become an office typist.
Coming from a musical family, her first wish in life was to sing, so she was very pleased when given the opportunity to audition for the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. At the age of 22 (1924) she was thrilled when accepted as a contralto because Sir Hugh S Roberton, who was the conductor, was a perfectionist.
In 1926 she went on an extended tour of Canada and America, where they gave concerts in 20 cities. While travelling to America on board SS Cameronia she was introduced to HRH The Prince of Wales. She and the choir also sang at Balmoral Castle for the King and Queen, and, in addition, they performed for Ramsay MacDonald. Their concerts took them all over Scotland, England, and Ireland.
In 1936 a gentleman named Adam Heaton joined the choir, and in 1938 Jean and Adam
married and moved house to Knightswood. Daughter Janis was born in 1941, and in 1943, when her husband was in Malaya, Jean and the choir did their bit for the forces' entertainment troupe Ensa, touring Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway Denmark, and France entertaining the troops in hospitals, canteens, and camps trying to build up morale.
She stayed with the Orpheus Choir until it had its final concert in 1951.
A January, 1936 tribute to
her in the Lute, the monthly newsletter of the choir, gives an indication of the regard within which she was held.
It states: ''We have had many Jeans in the choir - big, wee, and welterweight; staunch ones, tentative ones, timid ones, bold ones. Jean Shields belongs to the big staunch order.
''In loyalty, in service, in agreeableness, she is not bettered by any member past or present. There she stands, practice after practice, concert after concert, doing her work not only efficiently but thrillingly. For Jean lives her music.''
It goes on: ''Jean's a good 'un, sound in wind and limb and ready to take any fence, to breenge through a dry-stane dyke if the Orpheus demands it. Her big loyalty is the Orpheus. To it she has given herself and in it she has found herself.''
However, the Glasgow Orpheus choir was not her only singing. She sang every Sunday in the choir of Trinity Congreg-ational Church in Glasgow, and in 1948 she started the Knightswood Junior Choir. She also started the Knightswood Ladies Housewives Choir, and both were very successful.
In 1985 she moved to Ashlea Nursing Home in Callander where her love of music con-
tinued. There she died, peace-fully, having been happy and very contented with her life.
She is survived by daughter, Janis, two grandchildren, and
a great-granddaughter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article