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Orkney Answers
1 Twatt’s Mortification was the original name for
A A farm in Birsay
B The Orkney Educational Trust
C Kirbister School
Answer B
Twatt’s Mortification was the original name of the Orkney Educational Trust.
Magnus Twatt, born in Orphir in 1751, had a successful career with the Hudson Bay Company and left money to build a school in Kirbister in Orphir and to help educate the poor. When the local authority built a school after the 1872 Education Act, the old school was rented out as a house and the rent was paid into the Twatt Mortification Trust. Mortification used to refer to property left in a will. The name was changed in 1934, presumably as other sources of finance were added to it.
2 George Hamilton was made Earl of Orkney in 1696 for
A Helping win the Battle of Blenheim
B Marrying William III’s ex-mistress
C Rescuing Queen Anne when her horse bolted
Answer B
George Hamilton was made Earl of Orkney after marrying William III’s ex-mistress. He also had a very successful military career and was Britain’s first Field-Marshal. He was Governor of Virginia 1710-1737 but never set foot in America.
3 Sheriff Thom wanted to be buried in a wicker coffin because
A It was better for the environment
B It was easier for the pall-bearers to carry
C It would give him a head-start on Judgment Day
Answer C
Sheriff Thoms left a generous bequest for the restoration of St Magnus Cathedral. His nephews, who felt they should have received more, challenged the will, giving examples of their uncle’s eccentricity. These included wanting to be buried in a wicker coffin, to get a head start on the Day of Judgement.
4 John James Audobon named the American bird, the Traill Flycatcher after
A George Traill, administrator of Kumoan province in India
B Thomas Stewart Traill, editor of 8th edition Encyclopedia Britannica
C Catherine Parr Traill, author of Roughing it in the Bush
Answer B
Audobon, author of Birds of America, named the Traill Flycatcher after Professor Thomas Stewart Traill, in gratitude for his assistance in getting the book published. The Arctic explorer William Scoresby named Traill Island off Greenland after the professor.
5 Approximately how many miles of road does Orkney have?
A 450
B 550
C 350
Answer B
There are approximately 550 miles of road in Orkney. I’m told this is about the same as the length of the coastline but I’m not sure how many islands are included in that.
6 John Walter, Edmonton’s first millionaire, was born in which parish?
A Stenness
B Holm
C Evie
Answer A
John Walter was born in Stenness in 1849. He built up several successful businesses in Edmonton, including boat-building, a ferry service, a lumber mill and a general store. However, he lost it all in a series of calamities, culminating in the flood of 1915. His three homes have been preserved as the John Walter Museum in Edmonton.
7 Who, born in Orkney, coined the phrase, “Edinburgh Festival Fringe”?
A Edwin Muir
B Robert Kemp
C Margaret Tait
Answer B
The playwright Robert Kemp was born in Hoy, where his father was the minister.
In 1948, with Tyrone Guthrie, he staged an acclaimed revival of the first Scottish play, David Lyndsay’s ‘Ae Satyre of the Thrie Estates’. In the same year, in a newspaper article, he coined the phrase “Edinburgh Festival Fringe”.
8 Orcadian James Drever and his son James were the first and second professors at Edinburgh University in which subject?
A Psychology
B Physiology
C Pharmacology
Answer A
Father and son James Drever were consecutive professors of psychology at Edinburgh University. James jnr went on to become Dundee University’s first principal and his brother Harald was Professor of Geology at St Andrews.
9 A soldier born in Kirkwall appears as a character in the Flashman novels. He is
A John Login
B John Malcolm
C George Broadfoot
Answer C
George Broadfoot, son of the first minister of Kirkwall’s Secession Church, was born in Kirkwall in 1807. His mother was a daughter of James Sutherland of Burray. He and one of his brothers feature as characters in two of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels; “Flashman” and “Flashman and the Mountain of Light”. He was the Governor-General’s Agent in the North-West Frontier and his death at Ferozeshuhur in 1845 was noted in both Houses of Parliament as a public calamity.
10 Orkneyman Andrew Craigie was shipwrecked on Nantucket. His son became America’s first
A Apothecary General
B Attorney General
C Solicitor General
Answer A
Andrew Craigie’s son, also Andrew, was America’s first Apothecary General. He served under George Washington and may have tended the wounded at Bunker Hill. After the war he was a very successful property speculator in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his house, afterwards inhabited by the poet Longfellow, has been preserved as the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House.
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