John Walter MacDonald Bannerman (13 August 1932 – 8 October 2008) was a Scottish historian, noted for his work on Gaelic Scotland.

Biography

He was born in Balmaha, Stirlingshire, the son of John MacDonald Bannerman, later Lord Bannerman of Kildonan, and his wife Ray Mundell. His family was native speakers of

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

, and after leaving school Bannerman studied

Celtic languages The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yve ...

at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. He then studied for a second degree in Anglo-Saxon and Kindred Studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating in 1958 with a first, and went on to complete his doctorate there in 1964 under the supervision of Kathleen Hughes. Although he considered teaching Gaelic in schools, Bannerman instead took up a post at the Celtic department of the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

before joining the history department at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in 1967. He took over the running of the family farm at Balmaha in 1968, shortly before his father's death, dividing his time between teaching at the university, writing, and farming. His work on Gaelic Scotland was influential. His early works on

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaels, Gaelic Monarchy, kingdom that encompassed the Inner Hebrides, western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North ...

, the Senchus fer n-Alban, and the Iona chronicles which formed part of the later ''

Chronicle of Ireland The Chronicle of Ireland () is the modern name for a hypothesized collection of ecclesiastical annals recording events in Ireland from 432 to 911 AD. Several surviving annals share events in the same sequence and wording, until 911 when they con ...

'' are contained in his 1974 book ''Studies in the History of Dalriada''. He was a major contributor to the record of ''Late Medieval Monumental Sculpture in the West Highlands'' published in 1977 and his study of the Beaton family—''The Beatons: Medical Kindred in the Classical Gaelic Tradition''—appeared in 1986. In his later years he worked on the history of the Lordship of the Isles. He retired from teaching in 1997 and took up farming full-time at Balmaha. Bannerman married Chrissie Dick in 1959. They had five children.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bannerman, John 1932 births 2008 deaths Celtic studies scholars 20th-century Scottish historians Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Edinburgh People from Stirling (council area) Sons of life peers