| Description
| Painting, oil on canvas. Half length portrait of a miner. Framed, glazed, unsigned.
William Baillie (1905-1999) was a painter and art teacher at Hamilton Academy. He studied at Glasgow School of Art and exhibited in the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy.
Son of a miner and brought up in Larkhall, in 1940, he was seen as subversive. The Education Committee of Lanark County Council held an Enquiry in August 1940 and found that…..’English teacher James Inglis, and to a lesser degree, William Baillie, an Art master, were guilty of undesirable conduct and were suspected of carrying out subversive teaching’……they said of the Theatre Trip….’the failure of these teachers to stand, in the presence of pupils, during the playing of The National Anthem, was an objectionable act.’……..
The Scottish Secretary stated….”We would be glad of you keeping an eye on Hamilton Academy.” They were worried that William Baillie might promote Communist Propaganda!! |
