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Single Person record details
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Back
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Person Code
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ABD62
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Forenames
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James
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Surname
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Leatham
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Dates
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1865-1945
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Epithet
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author and publisher MBE
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Activity
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James Leatham, MBE, JP, was born in Aberdeen on 19th December 1865. He completed his apprenticeship as a printer and compositor there, before working in the north of England and in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, where he founded and edited the Peterhead Sentinel . He set up the Cottingham Press in Yorkshire from which he edited and published The Gateway , a monthly magazine with a wide circulation amongst Scots at home and abroad, first issued in 1912, which he continued to publish from the Deveron Press, Turriff until a few months before his death in December 1945. Leatham was a member of Turriff Town Council, with short breaks, for 22 years, and served several terms as Provost; he received the award of MBE in 1942. The author of many books and pamphlets on political, social and literary subjects issued from his own presses, he also contributed to the Aberdeen Press and Journal and to political periodicals. Over 60 of his works are to be found in the Local Collection in Aberdeen University Library, including local titles such as James Leatham and others, Petri Promontorium: or, Peterhead and the Howes o' Buchan (Peterhead: Sentinel, 1900); a biography of his friend, David Scott, Daavit: the True Story of a Personage, 2nd ed. (Turriff: Deveron, 191-?); The Style of Louis Stevenson, 3rd ed. (Turriff: Deveron, 1925), which he wrote with Gavin Greig (1856-1914), ballad collector; and a complete run of The Gateway , from 1912 - 1945. He was in correspondence with many persons well known in political and literary circles who contributed or subscribed to The Gateway , including James Ramsay MacDonald (1866 - 1937), Miss May Morris (d 1938), daughter of William Morris (1834 - 1896), and Lord Boothby (1900-1986). For further details see Bob Duncan, James Leatham (1865-1945) (Aberdeen: Aberdeen People's Press, 1978)
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Associated records
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GB231/MS 2776 | Papers of James Leatham (1865 - 1945), author and publisher | 1911-1958 |
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