Hugh macdiarmid biography

Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve, who lived from 11 August 1892 to 9 September 1978.

He is widely regarded as the most important Scottish poet of the 20th Century. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.

Grieve was born in Langholm, the son of a rural postman whose radical views helped form Grieve's own outlook.

He attended school at Langholm Academy, and among his teachers was the composer Francis George Scott, who would later set many of Hugh MacDiarmid's lyrics to music.

Macdiarmid clan

From Langholm, Grieve moved on to become a student-teacher at a school in Edinburgh. Here his literary abilities were recognised and encouraged by George Ogilvie, whose played an influential part in Grieve's life for many years.

Grieve's politics were always on the left. He became a member of the Independent Labour Party in 1