Robert Blair Wilkie

a schoolboy he wrote on his

jotter the address ''Paisley, Scotland, the World'' and although a lifelong advocate of Scottish independence there was nothing parochial or narrow about his cultural horizons.

A pupil of Camphill School, Paisley, and a graduate in English and Philosophy of Glasgow University, Robert and his devoted wife Helen were both dominies, Robert teaching English, History, and Geography. In 1937 while at university he joined the Scottish Nationalist Association founded by John MacCormick.

As an active member of the Paisley branch of the SNP. Wilkie's reputation as an orator of flawless eloquence, and a highly gifted raconteur quickly made him a much sought-after speaker and propagandist for the Nationalist cause. He was a key member of the cultural wing of the Party dominated by CM Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) and Douglas Young. Also part of this vital group were Oliver Brown, Wendy Wood, Archie Lamont, and Andrew Tannahill.

In 1945 he was the party's candidate in West Renfrewshire, and in the following year his journalistic talents were recognised when he was appointed editor of the Scots Independent. Throughout his life Wilkie was a polymath, publishing poems, limericks, cartoons, plays, and essays on Scottish history.

Along with his close friends Molly Urquhart and Duncan Macrae he was involved in the Rutherglen Repertory and Curtain Theatres. Throughout the forties and fifties his house was a regular meeting place for artists and writers of the New Scottish Group and New Art Club associated with JD Fergusson, Bill Crosbie, Donald Bain, Meg Morris, Margaret Brown, and Louise Annand, the latter organisation providing a vital support for important refugee artists like Jankel Adler and Josef Herman. Hugh MacDiarmid, compulsorily assigned to heavy labouring duties in a local brass foundry during the war, often found solace and hospitality with the Wilkies, and their portraits, along with those of the late Walter Pritchard and Jack House, can still be seen on the walls of their favourite howf - the Curlers in Byres Road.

Like MacDiarmid, Wilkie was three times expelled from the party but rejoined in the 1980s and was latterly the honorary chairman of the Maryhill Branch. In 1949 after standing as the party's candidate in the Camlachie by-election he was expelled along with MacDiarmid and Andrew Tannahill for ''extremist behaviour'' and shortly thereafter, along with the veteran nationalist, Roland Muirhead, he established the Scottish Resistance Committee which provided the support for MacDiarmid's Independent candidature at Kelvingrove in the 1950 election in opposition to the Secretary of State, Walter Elliot. During one of his rare absences from politics in the early fifties he was appointed Lectur D'Anglais at the University of Clermont Ferrand in France. A confirmed Francophile, Robert's love of France, like that of his lifelong friend Oliver Brown, was founded on a thorough knowledge of and delight

in French culture.

Throughout the 1950s and sixties Wilkie was an active member of the Glasgow Art Club, Saltire, Dunedin, Old Glasgow, and other cultural bodies and a founder member of the 1320 Society. However he was unhappy with the daily grind of teaching and health problems were beginning to take their toll. It was at this point that he switched careers by successfully applying for the post as curator of the People's Palace on Glasgow Green.

The museum which Wilkie took on in 1965 was very different from the vibrant institution envisaged by its founders. In spite of the efforts of several fine curators, including Elspeth Gallie, the Palace had been for long underfunded and marginalised by a succession of Fine Art directors at Kelvingrove who regarded it and its satellite branches at Springburn, Tollcross, and Camphill as an irritating irrelevance. Stripped of its name and rechristened the ''Old Glasgow Museum'', with its visitors discouraged by surrounding dereliction, Wilkie found himself in charge of an institution with no purchase fund, transport, storage, shop, or cafe. As the systematic clearance of the adjoining areas of Calton, Bridgeton, and Gorbals impacted upon visitor figures, Robert decided to exploit to the full his network of press contacts, and by means of regular newspaper features he successfully raised the profile

of the museum. His personal style of curatorship, greeting visitors at the door and guiding them through the galleries, while fleshing out the displays with wickedly humorous anecdotes, was a delight which few will forget. When the mood took him the diminutive curator could often be heard singing a favourite ballad while accompanying himself on James Watt's 200-year-old church organ. At a time when the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh was still undervalued and at risk, Robert and the late Professor Andrew MacLaren Young managed to rescue a complete shop-front from a forgotten cafe in Dalmarnock Road.

At the end of the sixties Wilkie's much-loved museum was once again threatened with the spectre of demolition when the closure and demolition of the adjoining Winter Gardens became Corporation policy. As so often in the past, Wilkie, disregarding the risks, mounted a highly successful press campaign which forced a change of mind. Frustrated in his plans, the director of parks closed the Gardens and removed all of the public seating. Today, after almost a million pounds of

structural renovation, the fabric of the People's Palace is safe for future generations.

As in every other aspect of life, Robert as curator of the People's Palace left a legacy of positive achievement to share, adding many unique and valuable exhibits to the collections. We who were privileged to share the company and friendship of this remarkable man have much to be grateful for and much to fondly remember. He is survived by his daughter, Janet, and his grandson, Daniel.