JOHNSON AND BOSWELL ON INCHKEITH, having mistaken the century.

Johnson and Boswell on Inchkeith,
 having mistaken the century.
Oil on canvas, 2020
61cms. x 81cms.

On the 18th of August 1773, Samuel Johnson with his friend and travelling companion James Boswell embarked on their famous journey to the Western Isles. They sailed across the Firth of Forth on the ferry from Leith to Kinghorn, but half way across they landed on the uninhabited island of Inchkeith. There they examined the ruins of an old fort and Johnson "stalked like a giant among the luxuriant thistles and nettles." I assumed this was the only visit they made to the island, until my attention was drawn to another source. A friend, who is a military historian, picked up a box of junk from a car boot sale and one of it's contents was a battered old notebook. To his surprise he discovered this was the diary of Lieutenant Arthur Perkins, Royal Garrison Artillery, A Group, South Battery, Inchkeith.

The keeping of diaries by soldiers in wartime was strictly prohibited but the diary of Lt. Perkins would have provided little military information to an enemy. He was a keen ornithologist and used the diary mostly to record the behavior of ground nesting and migrating birds that landed on the island. This was not the safe haven it had been, or was later to become, for many species of birds. During World War 2 over a thousand men served there and any open space was taken up by hutted accommodation. With over two thousand hob nailed boots clambering over the island the nesting gulls and Eider ducks were pushed to the fringes. However, his position, in the command post of the south battery, looked down on a grassy area next to the shoreline. Here he was able to spend many long hours studying the domestic lives of Cormorants as their large nest lay safely within a barbed wire entanglement. 

He served on Inchkeith till 1943. By this time the threat of invasion or surface attack was minimal and personnel were being selected out for the invasion of Europe. He was transferred to a field artillery unit which was heavily engaged and was seriously wounded. Fortunately he pulled through and survived the war. His passion for the natural world continued and he became an eminent professor of Zoology. His work is seen as influential in the development of modern Ecology. 

Extract from the diary of Lieutenant Arthur Perkins for April 1st, 1941.

08.35 hours.

Battery on full alert. Periscope sighted east of island. A Hudson aircraft from Leuchars patrols the shipping lane.

09.15

Stood down. As suspected, false alarm. Naval launch identifies periscope as driftwood.

09.30

Naval launch withdraws. Hudson bombs alleged periscope, sinking, (possibly) offending driftwood. Great glee and cheers, (jeers?) all over island.

15.25

Gunner Ambrose relates a strange story which may yet prove to be an elaborate practical joke. He was on guard duty on the northern side of the battery when he was approached by two men, dressed, as he put it.

"Just like Dick Turpin or actors in Treasure Island. One of them was a massive, fat, sort of cove wearing one of these old fashioned, triangular hats, a big brown great coat and long leather boots. His pall was finer dressed, in white silk stockings and white wig, like those worn by legal types in court."

Naturally, he challenged them. He assumed they were some chaps from another group having a joke but the older character acted up, waving his stick violently in the air and giving him dogs abuse. I would have inclined to think that Ambrose was pulling my leg, or the isolation of this posting had finally got to him and he was hallucinating, but an M.P. (military policeman) arrived on the scene and corroborated his story. He was so concerned about the waving stick and violent expletives that he drew his pistol and was about to arrest them when they suddenly disappeared into thin air.

Although concerned he would be made a laughing stock the M.P. did his duty and informed the Commanding Officer. The C.O. was concerned there had been a breach of perimeter security  so the whole place was thoroughly searched and a naval launch circled the island. The barbed wire was still intact and no one answering their description or any vessel was found. This will be the subject of great hilarity in the Mess tonight.