Map Reference: Kenavara d
Name Type: building
Meaning: The house of Alison, a painter
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Information:He saw Alison’s hut being brought to the site and he was born in 1922. Alison himself was great at fishing in his canoe at the back of Kenavara. He would lie back and tie the line to his toe. John MacPhail, Balephuil, 9/2004.
Alison had two huts, one in Sandaig and one at the foot of Kenavara. He stayed in both. He had five pedigree terriers and was in the Home Guard in Sandaig. He walked to the Cùiltean every Sunday. David McClounnan, 9/2004.
Both the Alison huts at Kenavara and Sandaig were built by Iain Bàn, John Campbell, Barrapol, the father of Annie Brown. Henry Alison had injured his right eye in the First World War. His brother was Walter, was also an artist. The Kenavara hut had rows of cups hanging on hooks and the local boys used to rock the hut in an effort to knock them off their hooks. Alison made a ‘Green Woman’ which he put on the rocks above the hut and then put about the story that the hut was haunted. Eachann Iain Bhàin the brother of Annie Brown, made Tobar Alison above the hut. David McClounnan, Balephuil, 9/2000.
Henry Young Alison was Interim Director of the Glasgow School of Art 1945-6. He could be described as a Scottish Neo-Impressionist. School of Art website.
His brother was head of painting at Edinburgh School of Art. He lost an eye in the First World War. According to Donald MacKinnon, the Plumber, he was in the Home Guard on Tiree in the Second World War. Frank Curran, 9/2004.
Personal name authority record compiled for the GASHE project by John O'Brien, Glasgow University Archive Services, 26 July 2002:
Henry Young Alison, son of Walter Alison, was born on 21 September 1889 in Dysart, Fife. He trained at Glasgow School of Art from 1905-1912, studying drawing and painting under Maurice Greiffenhagen, Paul Artot and James Huck, gaining his Diploma in 1911. During the First World War he served in France but was captured and held as a prisoner of war. Whilst imprisoned he was wounded in one eye and lost the sight of it.
He joined the staff of Glasgow School of Art in 1927 as an assistant in the Drawing and Painting Classes, becoming Supervisor of the Evening School and the General Course in 1932. On Walton's resignation in 1945 he took over as Interim Director. He resigned in April 1946 when D.P. Bliss was appointed.
Alison was a figure and portrait painter, and exhibited at the RSA from 1916-1921. He died in 1972. Alison's brother, David Alison, also studied at Glasgow School of Art and was a successful painter.
One important legacy he left to the school [Glasgow School of Art] is the small staircase in the Mackintosh Library leading to the balcony floor. This was built by Alison and a janitor during the Easter vacation in 1946.
Local Form:
Languages : Gaelic, EnglishInformants: Donald MacNeill (Dòmhnall an Tàilleir), The Land, 2/1997
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