1 IF YOU, or your granny or auntie or uncle, ever watched The White Heather Club, you’ll know cheerful chanter Andy Stewart, the Glasgow-born kilted singer who was one of the stars presiding over this TV phenomenon of the 50s and 60s. Andy was born in 1933, the son of a science teacher, spent his childhood in Perth and Arbroath, then returned to the city to train as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.)

Glasgow Times: Andy Stewart and Robert Wilson on The White Heather Club

2 Andy loved to mimic and impersonate, but he had never seriously thought about becoming an entertainer – he once planned to be a veterinary surgeon. In 1950, at the age of 16, he took part in the Arbroath Abbey Pageant, and the seeds were sown. During his first year at the RSAMD in 1954, he obtained First Prize for Comedy.

Glasgow Times: Andy Stewart. Pic: BBC

3 The White Heather Club was where Andy became well known, both on TV and at the Empire in Glasgow, and he toured the world, visiting the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He was a hit at the Royal Variety Performance in London mimicking Elvis Presley singing ‘Donald, Where’s Your Troosers?’

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4 Andy wrote the words of A Scottish Soldier, linked them to a pipe tune, and sold three million records around the world. His other international hit singles included Come in-Come in, Donald Where’s Your Troosers?, Campbeltown Loch, and The Road to Dundee. He was in the Top 50 in the United States for more than a year. He continued working through the 70s, despite constant bouts of ill-health and even toured Australia.

5 Andy died in October 1993 , the day after he had taken part in a fundraising concert in Edinburgh to build Scotland’s first children’s hospice, and just days before he was set to top the bill in a Pride of the Clyde variety-revue at the Pavilion.