Obituary by Derek Schofield From The Guardian posted above by Vic Smith. For the Mudcat archives.

Stanley Robertson obituary

"Storyteller and folk singer steeped in Scots Traveller tradition
Stanley Robertson

Members of the Traveller community in Scotland have been vociferous guardians of oral culture: folk songs, ballads and stories. The singer and settled Traveller Jeannie Robertson, who died in 1975, was described by the American folklorist Alan Lomax as "a monumental figure in 20th-century folksong". Among the small number of singers to whom Jeannie taught the songs directly was her nephew Stanley Robertson, who has died of a heart attack aged 69. Although he never achieved the fame of his aunt, Stanley was nevertheless a highly skilled singer, with a seemingly unlimited repertoire, and a storyteller with a prodigious memory.

Stanley was the son of Jeannie's eldest brother, William, and William's third cousin, Elizabeth. By the time he was born, the family had settled in Aberdeen, although they continued the "summer walking", when Travellers took to the road and worked in seasonal agricultural trades. The annual exodus to Alford in north-east Scotland (which inspired the title of one of Stanley's books) to work in the flax fields allowed the family to escape from the prejudice then common among the city's residents.

Stanley left school at 14 and spent almost all of his working life as a fish gutter on the quayside at Aberdeen, where he frequently entertained his colleagues with stories and songs. He also played the bagpipes in the Territorial Army's pipe band.

His maternal grandfather, Joseph McDonald, provided further inspiration for Stanley's storytelling. His fairy-tales and tales of wonder, legends, religious and supernatural stories were first published in Exodus to Alford (1988), followed quickly by Nyakim's Windows (1989), two volumes of Fish-Hooses (1991), The Land of No Death (1993) and Ghosties and Ghoulies (1994). His final collection of stories, Reek Roon a Camp Fire, was published earlier this year. He told his tales in schools and was invited to storytelling festivals in Britain and the US. Some of his stories could last up to an hour, yet he told them with confidence, never faltering or forgetting the detail.

Stanley's storytelling inspired his playwriting, including The Burkers and Scruffie Uggie, written for children. The Edinburgh Theatre Workshop performed his Jack and the Land of Dreams in 2000.

Stanley visited his Aunt Jeannie regularly in the last years of her life. She taught him many of her songs, but had exacting standards. "Sing it right, sing it proper and sing it real," she used to tell him. With his work commitments, and a family of six children, the opportunities for Stanley to sing beyond north-east Scotland were limited until the 1990s. He recorded an album of traditional songs, A Keeper of the Lore, for the North East Folklore Archive in Scotland (1991) and was featured on the two CDs of Travellers' Tales (2005). Appearances at the Fife Traditional Singing Weekends led to his inclusion in the resulting albums, FifeSing 1 and 2. He also made regular visits to the National Folk Music Festival in Nottinghamshire and to Whitby Folk Week in North Yorkshire. In 2003, Stanley was one of the contributors to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington.

In 2002, the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen, established to study, record and promote the cultural traditions of north-east Scotland, obtained a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to research, archive and promote the oral and cultural traditions of Scottish Travellers. Stanley was employed by the university to work on the project, which finally allowed him to leave the fish houses. As part of the project, the Elphinstone Institute released a double CD of songs and stories from Stanley's childhood, Rum Scum Scoosh! (2006). A further double CD of ballads, The College Boy, and a DVD of his singing, Live at the Blue Lamp, are due for release soon.

In recent months, Stanley had been tutoring a young London singer, Sam Lee, in much the same way that he had been tutored by his Aunt Jeannie.

He was a committed Mormon and abstained from alcohol and tobacco. He is survived by his wife, Johnann, and children Robert, Anthony, Clifford, Dale, Gabrielle and Nicole, who all continue to sing and tell the family stories.

• William Stanley Robertson, folk singer and storyteller, born 8 June 1940; died 2 August 2009"