Stanley Robertson

He fell easily into the category of being one of Scotland's natural characters. But such pigeon-holing would deny recognition of his deep learning, and how he infused his own and successive generations in singing, music, poetry and stories. In his book Reek Roon A Camp Fire - published just days before he died and launched in Banchory with him centre stage singing and telling stories - he fused together what he called "the old languages" of Scots, Doric, Gaelic and Cant (the language of travelling folk) to make what he termed "one ancient" tongue.

William Stanley Robertson was born in simple circumstances in Aberdeen to a former traveller family, twelfth of 13 children. From his father, Bill - himself born in a bender (traveller's tent) by the Alford road - Robertson gained an ear for music, becoming a singer and accomplished piper.

Unlike his father - who in his time turned his hand to being a farm servant, labourer, policeman, prison warder, soldier, cinema manager and lifeguard - Robertson worked for 47 years as a fish filleter, the fish trade being the only avenue of regular employment open in those days for someone of traveller stock. Robertson called the near half-century "a useless, thankless trade, and the only respite I had was knowing that Christ's chief apostles were fish workers". Yet he took pride in his work, never cutting himself, and the filleting of lemon sole his speciality.

All this time he sang, the singing being as natural to him as breathing, though he picked his musical ancestry well. Much came from great-aunt Maggie Stewart, supplemented by his father and another aunt, the renowned singer Jeannie Robertson, as well as her daughter Lizzie Higgins. He recounted his respect for Auntie Jeannie: "She wis a diva amang oor fowk and she aye commanded complete silence as she performed, and she wid mak the hairs in eer heid stan up and pit shivers doon eer spine."

He inherited a profound repertoire in balladry, and developed and polished the collection through his own ear and researches, able to perform several versions of what might otherwise be regarded as "the same song". What put Robertson apart from folklorists was that he himself was the lore, and throughout his life he broadcast his knowledge, becoming known through folk festivals as a narrator and singer.

He appeared in Scotland's first storytelling festival in Perth in 1973. Two years later, he made the first of several visits to North America, being invited to lecture, pipe, sing and tell stories at various universities in the US, including Harvard. When the Commonwealth Games took place at Edmonton, Alberta, in 1975, the Commonwealth Institute billed him as star performer at a parallel arts festival, and actress Barbara Kelly had him on her show. The vastness of his oral knowledge saw him engaged as tutor two years later to Utah State Pipe Band.

The fact that his oral knowledge was immense in no way detracted from literary ability, and his vast written output included the play Scruffy Uggie for the Edinburgh Festival, as well as contributing a chapter on travellers for the Scottish Compendium of Ethnology.

Years later, he would recall that his apparent inabilities at school caused him frequently to be given the dunce's cap, yet at home he read voraciously thanks to the classics brought into the house by his mother. At the same time, he was immersed in travellers' culture thanks to his parents and wider family. "They were my real teachers," he recalled years later, "who taught me language and literature within a loving environment."

Called a "tinkie" at primary school by the "scaldies" (toonsers), he found his niche as a youngster at secondary school enjoying games, songs and jingles in the playground. Even as a 12-year-old, he mentored games with balls, ropes, tins, bools and girds, and organised sides for sappie sodjers, eio, leevio, hoist the green flag and kick the cannie - creating for himself what became a minor legacy in his CD of children songs and rhymes, Rum Scum Scoosh.

When a home for the study of ethnography and folk culture of north-east Scotland was created within Aberdeen University by the establishment of the Elphinstone Institute in 1992, Robertson was an obvious target. Institute director Dr Ian Russell wanted him, and gained funding for him for a three-year stint in 2002 to become a key worker on traveller lore - though Robertson continued as a fish filleter until the week before his new career. Robertson recorded more than 50 interviews, widening his work with more than 120 school visits, and as many again "barrie nichts".

The era of travellers came to an effective halt by the 1960s; through Stanley Robertson, travellers and their ways gained a champion who established the importance of travellers' culture to Scotland. Robertson twice became the subject of university doctoral theses.

He died suddenly, and is survived by his wife, Johnann, six children and grandchildren. By GORDON CASELY