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As I write this in 2024, several cronies will remember the late Willie Shanks BEM, one time Honorary President. When Willie joined the Club in 1933, two of the elderly members, Tom Horsburgh and John Fairbairn, had been Office Bearers of the Club since the inaugural supper in 1881. For that reason, Willie was for many years our connection to the earliest days, to the Founder Members, the characters, the stories, and he would recount how the club started to anyone and everyone with plenty time to listen. The name “Let it Blaw” came from the meeting in December 1880 when it was decided to have a Burns Supper in January 1881. As Club Bard for many years, it is perhaps inevitable that Willie featured that first meeting in one of his annual orations ………….
Extract from the Bard’s Oration written and presented by Willie Shanks
at the centenary supper in January 1981
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In the village of Balerno,
A hundred years hae gaen,
Sin’ the Burns Club started,
Wi’ a wheen o’ stalwart men.
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They gathered in the Henderson’s Inn,
On a wild, bleak, winter’s nicht,
Ower a wee drap o’ the cratur,
In twinkling candlelicht.
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When a man barged in frae Currie,
Weet and white wi’ snaw,
When someone shouted “shut that door,”
He answered “Let it Blaw“
The Spirit of ‘Let it Blaw’
On the evening of the ever-memorable 25th January 1881,
there assembled in responses to the very short invitation given, a Company of 23 gentlemen.