Eulogy for Iseabail Macleod

by her brother Iain MacLeod

Iseabail, three years older than me, was born in May 1936.

We lived in various towns in Dunbartonshire as our father, Donald, was promoted in the Police Service - Dalmuir, where Iseabail was born, Dumbarton during the war, apart from 18 months evacuated to Achiltibuie where Iseabail first went to school. Then back to Dalmuir and Clydebank High School and finally to Kirkintilloch and Lenzie Academy.

Iseabail did well and school, although technical subjects were not her forte. Language and Literature were much more to her taste. Our parents were both Gaelic speakers from Wester Ross but we were disappointed that they did not teach us to speak that language.

She took an MA at Glasgow University specialising in languages, graduating in 1957. During summer breaks she did au pair work in France and became fluent in French. She spent a year teaching English in Austria in Bregenz in Austria. At the end of that period she had a conversation while travelling on a train in Germany. Her interlocutor asked what part of Germany she came from. "I am not from Germany. I am from Scotland". "Your German is so good that you must be a spy." replied the woman. Iseabail also learned passable Italian and although not a fluent Gaelic speaker she had a very good knowledge of that language.

She did teacher training at Jordanhill and took up a post teaching French at a Glasgow school. But teaching was not her metier. Her career as a teacher ended in a very unsatisfactory way. But she showed resilience in adversity and decided to move to editing of foreign language dictionaries. This proved to be a very wise choice of career but the door ahead needed to be prised open. It was Catch 22. In order to get a job in reference book editing she needed experience but in order to get experience she had to have a job. She had a lonely few weeks tramping the streets of London looking for a job but eventually rang up Three Bells. She got a job with Europa Publications editing European reference books.

Having ‘learned the ropes' there, she got the job she wanted - in foreign language dictionary editing with Collins in Glasgow.

She started to live in a world of books. I remember being in her flat in Rosslyn Terrace surrounded by books that she had salvaged from a Collins clearout. Our friend from Skye, Seonachan MacLeod was there with a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare that he had been given. He said "Iseabail. I am getting a bit fed up of this Complete Works. Do you not have anything else by this guy?"

In 1975 Iseabail was appointed as Editor of Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary. She moved to Edinburgh where she bought a flat at 11 Scotland Street. At first she things went very well at Chambers but then disaster struck and she had to leave under very unsatisfactory circumstances.

But again she faced adversity with courage and this became another positive turning point in her life. She became a freelance editor; doors started to open ahead of her. She had no difficulty picking up work. She became happier and more relaxed and was lucky in love. She met Bruce, the love of her life. She became deeply involved in the lexicography for the Scots language. She became the doyenne of Scottish lexicography.

Iseabail and I were brought up in a Highland family environment where friends and relations were very important. We normally made an annual family pilgrimage to Achiltibuie and near the end of the visit, Father would say, for example "We cannot go home without seeing John and Bella". Such people had to be visited. Such a cultural experience was no doubt important in the formation of Ish's character but I think that her mind was hard wired for kindness, friendship and hospitality. If there had been an Olympic competition for such attributes, Iseabail should have carried the banner for the Scottish team into the stadium.

If you were a friend of Iseabail you were a friend for life - she had a gift for keeping in touch with people -mostly by telephone. If you were in difficult times - health, bereavement - Ish would step up the frequency of her calls. I do not know how she found the time to keep that up.

She had an open door in Scotland Street for friends and relations who needed accommodation - days, weeks, months. During the Edinburgh Festival the flat buzzed with people.

She was a fine cook and a gracious host. Many people remember enjoying interesting conversation, good humour and great food at dinner parties at 11 Scotland Street.

In recent years she lived on a rather meagre pension but her bank account showed over £500 per year in donations to a range of charities - and that is just the direct debits.

Iseabail's character was very different from mine but we were always very close to each other. Like many here, maybe most of you, I miss her regular phone calls and I miss being able to draw upon her deep knowledge of words - in a wide range of languages.

I have been sent many tributes to Iseabail from her friends and colleagues. I will quote only one that says it all. Pauline Speitel a colleague of Iseabail's from Chambers and the Scots Dictionary work wrote about Iseabail in the Scots Language Dictionary Facebook page ending with:

"One of Iseabail's favourite sayings was that no-one is indispensable but some are irreplaceable. Yes, Iseabail, quite right."