Angus Campbell

Aonghas Caimbeul (9 October 1903 – 28 January 1982), alias Am Puilean, was a Scottish Gaelic bard, war poet, and memoirist.

Early life Caimbeul was born on 9 October 1903 at Swainbost, Ness, Isle of Lewis, where his family had lived since being evicted from Uig in 1842, during the Highland Clearances. The island's Anglo-Scottish landlord had originally intended for the families of the evicted to emigrate, and only granted them land at Swainbost to avoid the threat of violence.

The poet's parents were Alexander Campbell from Habost (Alastair Mhurchaidh Òig, 1865–1948) and Christina "Christy" Maclean (Cairistìona Aonghais MhicillEathain, 1868–1930). Of the poet's nickname of Am Puilean, his son Donald John has said, "Many Ness nicknames have no meaning, as appears to be the case here."

Between 1909 and 1918, Aonghas attended the 300-pupil Cross School and later recalled, "A Lowlander, who had not a word of Gaelic, was the schoolmaster. I never had a Gaelic lesson in school, and the impression you got was that your language, people, and tradition had come from unruly, wild, and ignorant tribes and that if you wanted to make your way in the world you would be best to forget them completely. Short of the stories of the German Baron Münchhausen, I have never come across anything as dishonest, untruthful, and inaccurate as the history of Scotland as taught in those days." During his service in India, Caimbeul managed to attend a speech made by independence activist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and an aerial show by aviator Amy Johnson.

In his award-winning memoir Suathadh ri Iomadh Rubha, Caimbeul recalled the origins of his poem, Deargadan Phòland ("The Fleas of Poland"), "We called them the Freiceadan Dubh ('Black Watch'), and any man they didn't reduce to cursing and swearing deserved a place in the courts of the saints. I made a satirical poem about them at the time, but that didn't take the strength out of their frames or the sharpness out of their sting."

Caimbeul composed other poems during his captivity, including Smuaintean am Braighdeanas am Pòland, 1944 ("Thoughts on Bondage in Poland, 1944").

Later life After a three month long forced march from Thorn to Magdeburg and which he graphically describes in his memoirs, Caimbeul was liberated from German captivity on 11 April 1945. He returned to his native Swainbost and spent his life there until he died at Stornoway on 28 January 1982.

Writings Aonghas Caimbeul's collected poems, Moll is Cruithneachd, were published by Gairm at Glasgow in 1972 and were favourably reviewed.

Caimbeul's memoirs, Suathadh ri Iomadh Rubha, which won the £200 prize in a contest offered by the Gaelic Books Council, was edited for publication by Iain Moireach and was also published by Gairm at Glasgow in 1973. Of the memoir, Ronald Black has written, "It is a remarkable achievement consisting as it does of the memoirs of an exciting life, woven together with a forthright personal philosophy and much detailed ethnological commentary on tradition and change in island communities during the twentieth century, all steeped in a solution of anecdote, sometimes brilliantly funny. It is the twentieth century's leading work of Gaelic nonfictional prose."