A very special Burns Night Supper will be taking place in Perth on Saturday, January 28.
The Perth Burns Club (PBC) is marking 150 years since it was founded as a Fair City-based appreciation society for poet Robert Burns.
Modern day dinner guests can look forward to donning a kilt or an evening frock and enjoying a splendid three-course haggis feast at the Salutation Hotel in Perth.
All the ritual, music and ceremony is kept lovingly intact just as would have been on show when the club first gathered to mark the Scottish bard’s birthday in 1873.
PBC president Joan Allan will oversee a programme of traditional songs, music and reciters “of the accustomed high standard” seen at previous dinners plus guests can expect a fond dip into the club’s archive.
Records of the first ‘Burns Festival’ held by the club in 1873 tell of a joyful evening: “On Friday evening, a number of gentlemen met in the Exchange Hotel, George Street, and celebrated in a convivial and hearty manner the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.
“Mr Nicol presided and Mr Black was croupier. The toast of ‘The Immortal Memory of Burns’ was given in most felicitous terms by the chairman, and was responded to by the company with the utmost enthusiasm."
It was agreed in the course of the evening that a Burns Club should be formed in Perth.
The Perth Burns Club was formally instituted on February 8, 1873 at a meeting in the Stormont Arms Hotel when Thomas B Nicoll, a local stationer, was elected as the first president.
Basically an all-male literary society, the club met on the first Saturday evening of each month with additional whist parties held on Wednesday evenings.
It was not till 1987 that women were invited to join the club. The club claimed to be pioneers of cheap day excursions when, in March 1879, they sponsored a day trip to Ayr.
Four hundred people travelled from Perth, dined at Goudie’s Restaurant and visited Burns Cottage.
Today, the club still holds a summer outing.
The Perth Burns Club went into abeyance for the first time prior to the First World War and was revived in 1927 by Sir Thomas Hunter, proprietor of the Perthshire Constitutional newspaper and a former Lord Provost of Perth and Member of Parliament for the constituency.
He became the first president of the new body and was later followed by his son, Colonel T Harris Hunter.
The outbreak of war in 1939 saw an end to the club’s activities and although an unsuccessful attempt to revive the club was made in 1953, it remained in abeyance until 1977.
On its reconstitution in April 1977 with Donald M Paton elected as president, The Perth Burns Club became a mixed club and in 1987 Ruth M Lumsden became the first lady president.
In 1990, the club was instrumental in bringing the annual world conference of The Burns Federation to Perth for the first time since 1926 and the three-day event attracted 550 delegates to the city, many of them from overseas.
In 1993, five members of the club travelled to The Burns Federation conference in Calgary, Canada.
At the 125th anniversary dinner in 1998, chaired by the president Graham D Thomson, the Immortal Memory was proposed by Andrew J McKee of Paisley, the immediate past president of The Burns Federation.
The club has a number of treasured artefacts relating to Robert Burns.
There is a cast of his skull dating from 1834 and presented to the club in 1874, a wooden bust, a charcoal portrait and the certificate of the club’s founding.
The dinner at the Salutation Hotel on January 28 has a formal welcome – ‘Tak’ tent, I’ll tell thee what’ – conducted by the dinner chairperson, Joan Allan, who is the current PBC president.
For those not keen on the haggis there is the alternative choice of a steak pie.
During the evening there will be verse and music with a piping selection from Mr Bristow, fiddle by Heather Rodger with Sangs o Burns sung by Irene MacFarlane and Paul Vaughan accompanied by Howard Duthie on piano.
Verses will be spoken by Donald Paton FSA Scot, Vancouver and Ethan Wivell and The Immortal Memory is performed by Prof David W Purdie, MB, FRCOG, FSA Scot, Edinburgh.
No Burns evening would be complete without ‘Tam O Shanter’ which will call upon Donald Paton to stand and speak again.
Jim Calderwood, past president of The Perth Burns Club, is set to bring forth the words to ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
The ticket price is £35 and the plan is to seat people at round tables of eight.
Elliott Boyle, secretary of Perth Burns Club, is the person to contact to book tickets for Saturday. Email elliott.boyle1950@gmail.com or call 07709 225480.
