4
BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON
HISTORIC CHURCHES
21ST ANNUAL EDITION
‘Medicine’ (window 4, north wall, 1934–5), in memory of Sir Donald MacAlister: ‘the basic idea of the image as
a whole is “Health-Energy set against Suffering-Exhaustion” … I have purposely planned the composition so that
the doctor may seem to be easing the Sufferer’s movement down, or up – in accord with the spectator’s mood at
the moment’ (Douglas Strachan, November 1934)
estimates to Principal Rait in December 1930.
In this document Strachan set out the defining
principles of his scheme as ‘an attempt to figure
man’s life, all life, as engaged on a spiritual
enterprise: to visualise our little planet moving
on through infinite space – or perhaps one ought
now to say Finite Space, whatever that may
mean: man’s unceasing search and endeavour to
comprehend the universe and his own spiritual
aspirations, and to find one image for both’.
Strachan’s note continues with a more detailed
description of the arrangement of the windows:
Planned in sections this gives for the 12 lights in the
N. & S. Walls.
The Universe, creation of Solar system, earth, man:
symbolised by the Signs of the Zodiac (subject-matter
of the “bosses” in the 6 N. wall windows: 2 Signs to
each boss: the “Days” or stages of creation (in the
corresponding position on the S. wall): and below
these in the full length lights eight figures (one in each
light) typifying the various domains of man’s thought
and search (and therefore the work of Universities)
N.
S.
Theology
Philosophy
Law
Literature and Arts
Medicine
History
Applied Science
Science
Or any other group deemed more representative:
these forming a connecting passage between:
History:
the daily life of the community in
the West Window, and
Revelation:
a kind of
Benedicte window with Spirit dominating: East.
The cost of each window was set out in the note,
with £700 each for individual lancets, £235 for
the four small part-lancets in the nave, £5,200
for the four-light west window and £3,600 for
the three-light east window. As can be seen from
the pricing, Strachan intended to give greater
elaboration to the main east and west windows.
He estimated that it would take two years to clear
his workload before a start could be made on the
chapel commission. Strachan worked from his
house, Pittendreich, in Lasswade, Midlothian,
which had been designed by David Bryce in 1857
and specially adapted by Sir Robert Lorimer in
1928–9 to accommodate Strachan’s glass studio
and kilns. A number of assistants were employed,
who were allocated cottages on the small estate.
The decorative elements of the windows
were closely interwoven with the subject matter,
as in the Scottish National War Memorial
windows where there are similar motifs and
themes. The jagged or curvilinear shapes of the
painted glass panes are emphasised by their
leaded surrounds, and along with the varying
intensity and pattern of colour they cleverly
provide a sense of movement or emotion to
the distinct zones of the windows. There is no
narrative structure as such but the windows are
organised internally into themes. For example
in the great west window, the saints occupy the
central zone of each lancet, while scenes from
history are placed at the top and bottom. Signs
of the zodiac are located in the top zones of
the nave windows, with contemporary figures
representing the various branches of knowledge
below. With the exception of the representations
of ‘Alma Mater’ and Charity, all the principal
figures are male. Although Strachan never
completed the chancel windows, he planned
to emphasise the shrine-like appearance of
the communion table and memorial tablets.
The University Court, led by Principal
Rait, welcomed Strachan’s proposals and set
about finding donors for each of the windows.
Numerous potential donors were approached
and by April 1931 seven windows were promised.
The first of the windows to be commissioned
was the rose window in the west wall, which
was dedicated in memory of the late university
chancellor, Lord Rosebery, on 21 February 1932.
Strachan explained to Principal Rait that ‘as a
rose window should be rich and jewel-like, I have
allowed myself a slightly larger proportion of rich
colour in this window than will be permissible
in the others’. The scheme then progressed along
the north wall of the chapel, with Aries and
Taurus, Gemini and Cancer, Applied Science and
Theology dedicated in 1934 and Medicine in 1935.
The chancel arch windows and the Alma Mater
window in the choir gallery followed in 1937.
Lights 1 (St Andrew) and 2 (St Columba)
of the four-light west window were finally
dedicated in October 1937, some six years
after the initial designs were submitted. It
is clear from his correspondence that they
presented Strachan with the most complicated
technical problems of his career to date:
‘The effect I sought has proved maddeningly
elusive at times and before I got it I must have
made, smashed, and remade the equivalent
of four windows’. Strachan also undertook
considerable research in order to make the
historical details as accurate as possible. The
Philosophy window also caused Strachan
much anxiety, which delayed it to the point
that the donor withdrew his offer in 1939.
At the outset of the second world war,
the two completed panels were removed
from the west window of the chapel for safe
storage in Edinburgh, alongside the windows
of the Scottish National War Memorial. In
spite of the restrictions and wartime gloom,
Robert Rait’s successor Principal Hetherington
instructed Strachan to proceed with the final
two lights of the west window: St Kentigern
and St Ninian. These were completed relatively
quickly, by April 1941, but also placed in
storage for the duration of the war, this time
in Strachan’s old doocot at Pittendreich. The
whole scheme for the great west window first
came together in the chapel at the dedication
of the St Kentigern and St Ninian lights on
3 December 1945. Although Strachan had
