Dear friends,

Hugh S. Roberton was my grandfather, definitely a Scotsman from Glasgow, and the creator and conductor of the Glagow Orpheus Choir. He was also a prolific composer of choral music, much of it based around traditional Scottish songs and hymn tunes. I was a young teenager at the time of the Vera Lynn case and remember it well. The arguments contained in it illuminate some of the issues raised by your correspondents. There was never a disagreement that the verse of the song was basically 'The Muckin' of Geordies Byre' but Hugh S. Roberton definitely wrote the chorus and all of the words. My father, who was his emanuensis at the time testified to this in court. However the Vera Lynn camp and her recording company produced the royal piper and a couple of other old geezers from the piping field who swore blind that it was all a traditional air. My father always claimed they were given a bung to commit perjury to spare the'Forces Sweetheart' the humiliation of losing the case. The whole thing divided public opinion right down the middle. Miss Lynn was, of course, a wartime heroine whilst my grandfather was a founder member of the Scottish Independent Labpur party, a well known pacifist, socialist and was given the moniker 'The Red Kinight of Clydeside'. Curwen, his publisher were virtually bankrupted by the case and wobbled on for another fifteen years until they were conumed in an asset stripping takeover by the US conglomerate Crowell, Collier Macmillan. My father was made reunundant and set up Roberton Publications to make his father's work available. It grew and by the time of his death in 2003 (he was still running the business at the age of 89) it was probly the most respected choral publishing house in the UK.