Ian Robert Hamilton Abbot (1947–1989) was a Scottish poet. A posthumous work of Abbot, ''Finishing the Picture'', was published by Kennedy and Boyd in 2015.

Life

Abbot was the son of a house-painter, Thomas Abbott, and mother Robina Abbot. His brother was Frazer Abbot, a respected painter, and his sister was a nurse. Abbot grew up in a

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

on Ruthven Avenue in the city of Perth and attended the Northern District School. Abbot's family later moved to Rannoch Road in the northwest area of Perth with Abbot moving to Goodlyburn Primary School and later

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the Pe ...

. Abbot left the Academy before completing his examinations to work at Tay Salmon Fisheries Company. During this period, he became increasingly

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

in his political outlook.

1960s

In the 1960s, Abbot attended Dundee Commercial College to attain the

Highers In the Scottish secondary education system, the Higher () is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) offered by the Scottish Qualifications ...

he needed to attend university. While at the college, Abbot attended the class of the Scottish poet

William Montgomerie William Montgomerie (1797–1856) was a Scottish military doctor with the East India Company, and later head of the medical department at Singapore. He is best known for promoting the use of gutta-percha in Europe. This material was an import ...

and it was Montgomerie that ignited Abbot's interest in poetry. After leaving the college, Abbot found employment as a

psychiatric nurse Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizoph ...

at the

Royal Edinburgh Hospital The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Morningside Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian. History The "foundational myth" has it that the hospital was founded by Dr Andrew Duncan, the elder, Andrew Duncan ...

. From there, he matriculated at the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. It was esta ...

to read medicine, later moving to

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built w ...

to read

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

. Abbot left without a degree, having become disenchanted with academia.

1970s

In the 1970s, Abbot became a

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

and moved to Whitebridge to devote himself to writing, but the remoteness of the location meant that orders for work became fewer and the business failed. Abbot took on a large number of low paying jobs to earn enough money to live, such as casual farm work. He worked as a sheep clipper, fencer, tractor driver and pony drover. Other positions that Abbot described in the biographical entry of his ''Avoiding the Gods'' included barman, different types of drivers, forestry worker, auditor and interior designer. Abbot explained during this period that he took these positions to try and support himself while travelling in Africa, according to his

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...

bursary application biographical statement, but his aim was to become a full-time writer. Moreover, in a letter to William Montgomerie, Abbot admitted that the idea of risking all on full-time writing scared him.

1980s

At the start of the 1980s onwards Abbot's poetry started to appear in print. In 1982, he won a prize of £50 that was posted by the

Royal Lyceum Theatre The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658-seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by a ...

for the poem ''Ariel''. In 1985, he won another poetry competition with his poem called ''Scott’s first voyage'', in a competition that was held by the

Poetry Association of Scotland The Poetry Association of Scotland (or PAS), formerly known as the Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse, is a public, membership-based literary society founded in 1924 principally by John Masefield (along with other figures such as Marion ...

. By the mid-1980s, Abbot was touring Scotland where he gave readings and ran workshops in poetry writing. This led the

to provide a

bursary A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some awa ...

that enabled him to complete the work on the manuscript '' Avoiding the Gods''. The manuscript was published in 1988 by Chapman Publishing.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbot, Ian 1947 births 1989 deaths Scottish poets Writers from Perth, Scotland People educated at Perth Academy Scottish nurses Psychiatric nurses Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Medical School Alumni of the University of Stirling