Orkney Image Library

This photo was taken at a dance after a performance by the Rousay Drama Club in about 1938. The photographer was W. S Thomson who worked in Orkney for about 10
years from 1937.
Front row L-R Robert Johnston. James Mainland, and Hugh Russell.
Second row: Jim Craigie, Lizzie Craigie, James (Steebly) Craigie, Chrissie Russell, Hugh Marwick, Hugh Gibson, Maisie Mainland, Peggy Cooper, Rita Shaw, Cissie Gibson, and half image (unknown).
Third row: Alice Logie, Charles Logie, John Gibson, Marjory Gibson. James Marwick, Sadie Gibson, Hugh Craigie, Maggie Grieve, Hugh Robertson, Ann Lyon, and William Gibson.
Fourth row: William Craigie, John Mainland, David Benston, James Craigie, Leonard Marwick, Jim Yorston, Mabel Grieve, Cissie Sinclair, Sarah Smith, and Edith Gibson.
Back row: Edwin Moar partly behind curtain, Stanley Moar, Fraser Moar, James Clouston, Sinclair Craigie, William Moar, Nellie Harcus, Evelyn Pirie, Jim Gorn, Evelyn Shearer, Thora Kirkness, Anna Reid, Kathleen Gibson (top of head showing), Alice Cormack, John Shearer (partly concealed), and Molly Gorn.
My thanks to Edith Gibson for her assistance.

Thank you for your trouble, Phots take on so much more meaning when you recognise the faces. I did think, that if this was the performers, there would not be that big an audience.

Is there a stamp/name of W. S. Thomson on the back of the picture? Thomson was a Glaswegian born photographer with Orkney roots. His great-grandfather Donald Thomson was born in Walls in 1825. He moved to Caithness where he stayed the rest of his life. W.S. Thomson arrived in Orkney in late 1938 and got married in Kirkwall with also a Glaswegian girl and moved to Fort William in 1944 or 1945. Do you maybe have other Thomson pictures? I am writing a biography on his work and life, so all other info is more than welcome.