Bessie West

Died: March 13, 2015.

An appreciation

Betsy (Bessie) West, who has died aged 99 after a short illness, was one of Islay's oldest residents and, until the final days of her life, lived on her own in her Port Wemyss home. It was always a wonderful place to visit for neighbours, relations, friends and, on many occasions, complete strangers, including The Herald diarist Tom Shields, who never left until they had enjoyed her lavish Hebridean hospitality and usually with their genealogy well explained. Her knowledge of local families' histories was legendary thanks to her prodigious memory and painstaking research.

Her knowledge of folk history, an impressive collection of photographs and work on family trees brought countless visitors from all over the world, and, thanks to the good offices of Iain MacIntosh, a website was established based on her life and photographs which will be a permanent tribute to this fine native of the Rinns.

She was born in Portnahaven and although her working life was spent away from her native island, she was always extremely proud of belonging to the Rinns of Islay. She trained as a nurse at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, where she was the gold medal winner for her year group. She went on to study midwifery and, after her marriage to Fred West of Fraserburgh, worked as a nurse in Aberdeenshire until she retired in 1975. Although not blessed with children of her own, she was a generous Auntie Bessie to many.

When she retired from nursing, she and her husband moved back full-time to her native island but their time together was short as Fred died in 1976. However, she settled into life in her new home in Port Wemyss with her typical commitment and bought a rowing boat for her brother, Malcolm, and herself, and it was a huge source of pleasure to her to go fishing of a summer evening. She loved to salt the piocaich (saith) which she caught and this was often on offer as a special delicacy at new year time.

She had a great understanding of, and passion for, the natural environment, especially the sea, and was proud of her family of seafarers, including her brother and her father, and her ancestors who, in the years before the first World War, had been among the last Rinnsmen to go from Portnahaven across the Irish Sea to the Ould Lammas Fair at Ballycastle. She herself went to this famous fair on a number of occasions and, on her last trip shortly before her ninetieth birthday, sailed directly from Portnahaven which had been a lifelong ambition for this intrepid sailor and traveller. She was always busy at some pursuit or other - baking, knitting, gardening etc - and rarely missed any local events.

Gaelic was her native tongue and she took immense pride in speaking pure Islay Gaelic, being interviewed on a number of occasions for BBC Radio nan Gaidheal. She had a huge interest in the language and especially local vocabulary consulting MacAlpine's dictionary when necessary. An avid reader and historian, she had a fine collection of books about Islay and with her passing the Rinns has lost one its last and best informed tradition-bearers. The old Gaelic saying "nam b'e eileanach mi, b'e Ileach mi; 's nam b'e Ileach mi b'e Rannach mi/If I was an islander I would be from Islay; if I was from Islay I would be a native of the Rinns" could not be more fittingly ascribed than to Bessaidh Neill/Bessaidh Mhor Fhionghain.

There is little doubt she would have approved of the sumptuous purvey provided in the hall by An Tigh Seinnse (Portnahaven Hotel) and the adherence to local traditional funeral customs, including the drams and biscuits and cheese in the graveyard at Nerabus where she was laid to rest in the family grave. As a mark of respect, the cortege on the way to Nerabus went round Port Wemyss and James MacEachern, one of the island's renowned pipers, poignantly played The Rhinns of Islay' outside Faithlie, Bessie's home.

DUNCAN FERGUSON