PIRIE, ROBERT (1860 – 1920) Artist. For years the Scott Room of Drumfeld Museum contained the Pirie Collection. It was the one room in the building I was loath to enter. Pirie's gloomy landscapes never failed to cause me apprehension, prompting feelings of isolation and escalating panic. Staring into the canvases, I had the distinct impression of something trapped behind the paint. As a teenager, my impressions became more specific: frightened women wandered lost through Pirie's hills and forests. Researching his life and times, I was intrigued to discover that Pirie was a member of the Sons of the Morning sect and resident in London throughout the period of the Whitechapel murders. Forming an unlikely alliance with Pauline Semple, a feminist agitator, I campaigned to have Pirie's paintings removed from the museum and analysed: a simple enough request, resisted by the local council. It only recently occurred to me that the individuals who most strenuously opposed the aims of the Coe/Semple coalition were members of the Rotary Club, the society that evolved from the Sons of The Morning.

The Pirie collection was largely destroyed in a fire at a Glasgow Museums' warehouse where they were in storage having been lent to the city for an exhibition of Scottish landscapes. While the blaze was attributed to an electrical fault, I have every reason to suspect the involvement of Rotarians desperate to retain their secrets.

 

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