An enduring contribution to the community: remembering Janet McDonald
When Janet McDonald decided to hold a fundraising exhibition during last year's Wick gala, it turned out to be one of the biggest social occasions of the summer. On display were 500 photographs from the archives of J McDonald Photographers, the family business Janet and her late husband Ian ran in Shore Lane for many years.
My abiding memory of that one-day show at the end of July is the sheer noise it generated. Around 700 people packed in to the St Fergus Church Hall over the course of a few hours and the non-stop buzz of conversation spoke volumes about the McDonalds' unique and enduring contribution to their community. You could hardly hear yourself think as friends and acquaintances picked out familiar faces and chatted about shared experiences, laughing (and perhaps wincing) at the sight of long-forgotten hairstyles and fashions.
And there in the midst of it was Janet herself, a serene presence, pleasantly surprised at the turnout and delighted to be raising money for Church of Scotland projects, a cause close to her heart as a long-serving guild stalwart (the final sum was £2845).
J McDonald Photographers began life in Wick’s Harbour Terrace around 1950 and moved to Shore Lane in 1968. From weddings and portraiture to community activities, celebrations, commemorations and a whole range of other assignments, their cameras captured just about everything that went on in Wick and surrounding area in the second half of the 20th century and into the early 2000s.
Gala week in particular was a special time for them. After the opening night, featuring the crowning of the gala queen and the procession of decorated floats, Janet and Ian would stay up until 5am processing, printing and numbering photos and putting them on display in the shop window, filling the whole space from top to bottom. Crowds would gather in Shore Lane in the days that followed to relive the gala atmosphere or get a glimpse of what they'd missed. It was a Wick tradition.
Janet and Ian covered the Queen Mother’s regular holidays to Caithness, quickly earning Her Majesty's trust, and they provided news photography for daily papers as well as the local press. Long before digital photography and email, Janet would be a regular visitor to the Groat and Courier office to drop off her latest batch of prints and have a catch-up in the process.
Janet set high standards in everything she did; she believed in doing things properly. She was very well spoken, she was always immaculately dressed (with her hair in its trademark bun), she had a strong moral code and she would be the first to admit she could be bossy at times. That was a necessary attribute when setting up a group photograph, whether instructing wedding guests on where to stand or imposing a sense of order on a huge throng of East End junior footballers at the Bignold Park on a Saturday morning.
But she also had a tremendous sense of fun and she was a natural storyteller. Janet did two recordings for Wick Voices, the Wick Society's oral history project. In the second of those interviews (May 2019) she remembered moving to Wick from the south of England at the age of eight and the long journey by steam train, then spoke fondly of her time as a member of Wick Girls' Pipe Band. Recalling the band's adventures in London in 1949, when the girls were photographed marching down Ludgate Hill with St Paul's Cathedral in the background, Janet said: "My grandchildren will never be allowed to forget that their grandmother played the bagpipes down Ludgate Hill when she was 10 years old.”
Ian was quieter by nature, a supremely skilled photographer but happy to let his wife do most of the talking. He died in 2004 and Janet stopped taking photos around six years ago. The shop continued, concentrating mainly on framing, until closing its doors for the last time in November 2019.
At the age of 80, Janet was ready to retire.
"I spent 56 years behind the camera and the counter,” she said at that time. “I have shared much laughter and some tears with our customers and met many talented people.
“I’ve made many friends. In fact, one of my 10-year-old twin granddaughters, who has just moved to Wick, said: ‘Does everyone know you, grandma?’
"It has been a privilege to share in community events for so long. If a price could be put on job satisfaction, I would be a millionaire!"
- Janet McDonald (née Glander) passed away peacefully at home of heart failure on April 9. She is survived by sons Ian, Stuart and Andrew and daughter Karen, and nine grandchildren. The family said: "We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all the staff, carers and nurses firstly at Caithness General Hospital and then at home in her last weeks." A memorial service will be held when circumstances allow.
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- WICK VOICES: Photographing Wick life: 'What fun we had!'
- WICK VOICES: It was our whole lives: Memories of Wick Girls' Pipe Band