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His life & work:

< biography to follow >

Dear Mr Hood,
I am greatly honoured by the kind invitation of the honourable members of the Irvine Burns Club. I thank you for it and am delighted to accept.
     Yours sincerely
     Willy Brandt

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club at that time.

On the photo enclosed with his acceptance is the salutation, “Dem Irvine Burns Club mit freundlichen Grussen“
(“With friendly greetings to the Irvine Burns Club“).

Her life & work:

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Dear Mr Hood,
     It is with great pride I accept the honour of Irvine Burns Club honorary membership. My Father was a life long student of Robert Burns and brought me up on the simple philosophy based on Burns writings

"Never think any one is better than you, and never think that you are better than any man who lives."

     Burns season is upon us again. I shall be speaking at two suppers in Elgin and Llanbryde.
     Burns of course also has a lot to do with my life long fight for Freedom. Thank you for the honour.
     Yours for Scotland
     Winifred Ewing

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club.

Her letter is on the headed paper of the Scottish National Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Moray and Nairn.

Her life & work:

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Dear Andrew Hood,
     (Please excuse me thus addressing you, but the 'Mr' means nothing, lacking individuality)
     I am indeed honoured to be proposed as an Honorary Member of the Irvine Burns Club, with its fine and ancient tradition. It seems also to be un-usually original in its processes, something much more than just holding a Supper once a year!
    The Club's stated reason for offering me this great honour is very precious to me, and it is difficult to find words to express my humble appreciation.
    I hope, later in the year, to make a special journey to Irvine in order to visit the Club and so be able to verbally express my gratitude.
     Yours sincerely,
     Wendy Wood

They say 'it's love that makes the World go round', but it is Rabbie's lovability that has made him go round the World.

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club.

We do not have the 'stated reason' for the nomination, nor do we yet know whether she managed to visit the Club.

His life & work:

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Dear Mr Hood,
     I feel extremely honoured to have been nominated as an Honorary Member of so distinguished a Burns Club as that of Irvine, and I accept the compliment with the greatest pleasure and thanks, even if, at the same time, with no little astonished trepidation at finding myself in the company of American presidents, English poet-laureates, British generals and politicians and literary men of all kinds. While respecting them all for their outstanding qualities, I think the one I like best is your own townsman, John Galt, who has always had my admiration, and whose work, I am glad to think, is at last getting the credit it deserves.
     Incidentally I notice that my nominator is Mr Charles Masson. If he is indeed an old Aberdeen friend of mine, the pleasure of the compliment he pays me is so much the more enhanced. Please convey my warmest thanks and my kindest regards to him. I very much regret I cannot accept his most friendly invitation to be present at your Burns Supper. I have a prior engagement to attend that of Peterhead Burns Club but I shall be thinking of you all and I send you my best wishes for a happy function.
     Lastly I am especially glad to be made a member of an Ayrshire Burns Club. I lived for several years in Ayrshire, enjoyed every minute of it and learned to have a deep and lasting affection for Ayrshire folk.
     Yours very sincerely,
     David Murison

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club.

Charles Masson was Club President 1974-75.

This letter is on the headed paper of The Scottish National Dictionary, of which he was Editor.

His life & work:

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Dear Andrew,
     Your letter conveying the President's wish to make me an Honorary Member of Irvine Burns Club was a great surprise and a great compliment. I am well aware of the illustrious figures in the past to whom this honour has been accorded, and I am happy to take a humble place among them.
     Whatever I have done for Irvine Burns Club to help keep the memory of the poet green, and for certain aspects of Scottish literature, I have done with all the enthusiasm of which I am capable. I am therefore the more pleased that your President has recognised what little I have been able to accomplish.
     I hope I may be spared to see the Club succeed in its new endeavours, and to have a hand in some of these.
     Yours sincerely, Alex MacMillan

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club.

This letter is on the headed paper of The Burns Federation Scottish Literature Committee, of which he was Convener.

His life & work:

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Dear Mr Hood,
     I greatly appreciate your letter of 30th December, informing me of the very real honour done to me, in being nominated an Honorary Member of the famed Irvine Burns Club. I am most happy to accept, naturally; and I hope you will convey to Ex-Provost Rubie my thanks for his nomination. Thank you also for the very kind things you say in your last paragraph - far too generous.
     I found the brochure highly interesting and most tastefully compiled and produced - and the page of signatures quite fascinating. To be associated, however remotely, with the names thereon, is flattering in the extreme.
     May I wish the Club, its officers, committee and members, all continuing success?
     Yours sincerely,
     Nigel Tranter

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club at that time.

Alex Rubie was Club President 1975-76.

His life & work:

< biography to follow >

Dear Mr Hood,
     Your letter of 29 December inviting me to be an Honorary Member of Irvine Burns Club gave me great pleasure, & I accept this honour with thanks. My visits to Irvine, where I have been hunting for documentation on John Galt, have been both profitable & pleasurable, & I retain kind memories of your hospitality. I expect to be in the U.K. this summer & if there is a chance of my calling again - and giving a talk on John Galt - I shall not miss the opportunity. I have another Galt edition [The Last of the Lairds] in the press & expect to see it published later this year.
     Meantime, on the occasion of your 150th birthday, I send my best wishes for the next 150 years.
     Sincerely Yours,
     I. A. Gordon

Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club.

Irvine Burns Club had been founded in 1826.

His life & work:

An English poet traditional in form, accessible in sentiment and often apparently parochial in his concern with English social and domestic life. The seriousness and accomplishment of Betjeman's poetry has often been obscured by its poipularity. His "Collected Poems" (1958, rev. 1962) was a bestseller.

Poet Laureate (the reason for his nomination as an honorary member) from 1972, Betjeman was also a broadcaster and an idiosyncratic architectural critic.

WC

Dear Mr Hood,
     Honoured to accept your kind invitation. I am at present in hospital but I hope I will soon be released and mobile enough to visit Irvine but cannot promise anything.
     Yours sincerely
     John Betjeman

Only the signature is handwritten. Andrew Hood was Hon. Secretary of Irvine Burns Club at that time.

His life & work:

James Leonard Callaghan, Baron, a British statesman, was Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979 (the reason for his nomination as an honorary member). He entered Parliament in 1945 and succeeded Harold Wilson as Labour Party leader in 1976.

He is the only Prime Minister to have held all three major offices of state - Chancellor of the Exchequer (1964-67), Home Secretary (1967-70) and Foreign Secretary (1974-76). He is also the second post-war Prime Minister never to have won a General Election.

Callaghan's tenure was marked by negotiations with David Steel in the Lib-Lab pact, and strife with the trade unions culminating in the 'Winter of Discontent'. He was defeated by Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and became a life peer in 1987.

WC

Dear Mr Hood
     Thank you for your letter of 19 January inviting me to accept Honorary Membership of Irvine Burns Club.
     I was very interested to learn of the rich tradition and activities of the Club and am honoured to have been invited to join a club of which so many distinguished people have been members. It gives me great pleasure to accept Honorary Membership.
     Thank you also for your kind invitation to visit the Club. As you will appreciate, my Parliamentary and other commitments prevent me from visiting Ayrshire as often as I would like, but I will certainly bear your invitation in mind.
     Yours sincerely
     James Callaghan

The "Dear Mr Hood" and the "Yours sincerely, James Callaghan" are handwritten onto the typed letter.

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