Martyn Bennett Musician and composer;
born February 17, 1971, died January 30, 2005.
Martyn Bennett, one of the Scottish music scene's greatest innovators, lost his long battle with cancer aged only 33. Born in Newfoundland, he grew up hearing Gaelic songs and stories among the farming folk of Codroy Valley. His mother, Margaret, is a Gaelic speaker from Skye and, when Martyn was six, she took him to live in Kingussie and encouraged him to take up the pipes. A natural talent soon became evident and by the time he was 12, Martyn was winning junior piping competitions.
He became the first traditional musician to enrol at the previously staunchly classical City of Edinburgh Music School and later studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
There he worked up a formidable classical violin technique under Miles Baster, of the Edinburgh Quartet, and could easily have become a full-time classical violinist but for the pull of the extracurricular sessions where a hybrid of traditional and jazz musicians was coalescing.
His first three albums, Martyn Bennett, Bothy Culture and Hardland brought a whole new audience to traditional music.
By the end of the 1990s, he wanted to present traditional songs in new ways without compromising the integrity of the songs .
He succeeded brilliantly, between the draining chemotherapy sessions which he was undergoing to try to combat the Hodgkin's lymphoma with which he was diagnosed in November 2000.
He continued to teach music on Mull, where he and his wife Kirsten settled. Even in his last days he was trying to convey ideas for a final recording.
Junior Omand
Ballboy, player and president of Queen's Park FC
Junior Omand began his career at Queen's Park as a tea boy aged about 10 and within a matter of two years he had risen to the rank of chief ballboy. There followed a distinguished playing career of some 10 years and in the fullness of time he became president of the club.
He belonged to that handful of amateurs who in the late twentieth century could compete with the best that Scottish professional football could provide and Scottish professional football was possibly at its best at that time.
He went to Hampden from the great nursery of Queen's Park School. He became a probing inside forward after starting life on the left wing.
He resisted all offers to turn professional, to the benefit of Scottish football, since it is highly unlikely that, otherwise, he could have made the contributions to the various league committees that he did.
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