Short film - Kirriemuir: the real Never Never Land

[Robert Greenham]

I recently stumbled across a short film (actually it's a video running for 6:24 minutes) about the life of J M Barrie.  One of the 'Angus Lives' series this one is called 'Kirriemuir - the real Never Never Land', and it seems to have been made recently as there is mention of the celebration in 2010 of Barrie's birth 150 years ago.  It may be viewed online on the Tayroots website: 
http://www.tayroots.com/ResearchYourRoots/AngusLives/JMBarrieVideo.asp

The film is aimed at the general public and, unfortunately, contains a couple of fundamental factual errors in the spoken commentary*, errors in connection with the accepted fundamental cause of Barrie's nature and development as a person and as a writer: the death of his brother, David.  Needless to say, I have written pointing these out and suggesting that the commentary soundtrack be corrected.

* 1  The commentary states that Barrie's brother David drowned in a skating accident.  This is patently untrue.  Going on the newspaper reports and various Barrie biographers' views there is a consensus that David was knocked over by a skating friend and banged his head on the ice.  David did not fall through the ice and drown in the water beneath.  In any event, regardless of this, I established in 2005 that the doctor had written on his death certificate that David died of 'Inflammation of Brain' from which he had suffered for 'One Week'.  I have previously argued that the inflammation could possibly have arisen as a result of banging his head on the ice, but also that it could have been the result of an infection or an autoimmune disease contracted at his boarding school. (I wrote at length on this issue on the ANON forum in July 2008.  I do not concur, incidentally, with Piers Dudgeon's fanciful speculations in his book Captivated! )

* 2  The commentary states that David was Mary Barrie's "first-born son who had died tragically".  This also is patently untrue.  David was Mary's second-born son, and the sixth of ten children.  Mary's first-born son was Alexander, born 11 years before David.  Indeed it was Alexander who was the head of the boarding school at Bothwell which David was attending when he died.

[mikey2573]

It sounds as if David died from an accident similar to that which took the life of the actress Natasha Richardson.

[andrew]

I had exactly the same thought!

[Robert Greenham]

Firstly, a correction to a careless error I made in my original post:  For Mary Barrie, please read (of course) Margaret Barrie.

Sorry, both, but the accidents were not too similar, were they?  David, we have been led to believe, had been standing on a frozen lake when he was knocked over by a skater, whereas Natasha fell over during a skiing lesson, although I think we have not been told how she came to fall.  As for the injuries sustained, and the subsequent deaths, of these most unfortuante individuals, whereas the circumstances of Natasha's situation are fully understood, those of David would seem to have been different and will probably remain unproven.

Without going into detail here, I think we can no longer be certain exactly how David came to bang is head on the ice, or even if he banged his head on the ice at all!  In my opinion, the information on his death certificate, which seems not to have been gleaned, used or speculated upon publicly until 2005, gives no clue as to how David's brain became inflamed in the first place.  The doctor made no mention of it having occurred as a result of a blow to the head, for example.  While a head injury is one possibility, so too is infection, and so too is an autoimmune disease, as I explained in my ANON posts in July 2008.   

From reading about what happened to Natasha, who died of an "epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head", it would seem that unless the pressure build-up, which occurs inside the skull and against the brain, can be relieved quickly, death usually occurs from within a few hours to within a few days, and almost certainly within 72 hours.  (ie. not within several days; not within a week).

[Robert Greenham]

Referring back to my original post in this thread, I am pleased to report that the soundtrack to the film has now been corrected so that the word 'drowned' has been replaced with the word 'died'.

The reference to David Barrie being the first born son has remained unchanged, however, and it has been explained that this is because the reference is not to the real David but rather to the mother character's dead first born son in A Window in Thrums.

Thanks to Sandra Affleck, and to Duncan Nicoll and the other folks in the Media Unit of Angus Council for dealing with this so swiftly.

[marshalltucker]

Site cannot be found.

[Robert Greenham]

Which site cannot be found? 

[Robert Greenham]

Aha!  I see that online access to the video has now been denied.  Strange.  I will try to find out why, and report back on this thread.  Perhaps it is being amended or re-edited.

The video was accessible on the URL I gave in my first post on this thread, and I suspect that it will be accessible there again, in due course. Tayroots is a genealogy website, and their text on Barrie still contains the same error as the video did before its soundtrack commentary was corrected. 

The video was also accessible via the Angus Head site: www.angushead.com, and links to both Tayroots and Angus Head are provided in the News page of the Kirriemuir Heritage Trust website, homepage: www.kirriemuirheritage.org.uk/index.html

[Robert Greenham]

Apologies, everybody.  In my last post I should have typed Angus Ahead (not Angus Head), and the associated URL should be www.angusahead.com

(More haste, less ... etc)

[Robert Greenham]

I have heard back from Sandra Affleck, of the Kirriemuir Heritage Trust, that Angus Council's Media Unit (who made the film) were contacted by a book publisher regarding their use of three illustrations in the film. They had been led to believe that the illustrations were in the public domain but, in fact, they're under copyright.  Duncan Nicoll, the Media Producer, explained that they are sorting the problem out for a nominal fee so that, hopefully, the film can be back up online soon.