A Tribute to Rosemary Millington

At the end of March, the Aboyne and Deeside Festival will welcome the Oxford Concert Party back to Aboyne for a concert in The Victory Hall on Sunday 28th March at 7 pm.

The return of the Oxford Concert Party to Aboyne has been planned as a tribute to the late Rosemary Millington, a well-known Deeside lady who died in October 2023 and bequeathed a legacy to the Oxford Concert Party. Rosemary Millington was a founding member of the Aboyne and Deeside Festival and the Strathdee Music Club. With a keen interest in the arts, she was instrumental in bringing many high profile musicians to perform in Aberdeenshire and was the person who headed up the fundraising campaign to raise the £19,000 to purchase the Bechstein Model B Grand Piano for the Deeside Community Theatre in Aboyne. The National Lottery Fund contributed £14,700 to its cost and the very fine instrument is still in use at concerts today. The photograph shows Rosemary Millington on the left of the piano with Sheila Maxwell sitting at the keyboard.

Rosemary Millington was born in Glasgow in 1935. She attended Brighton Art School followed by two years nursing in London. For two years in the 1960’s she explored Australia where she lived off her own wits and resources – first as an advertising copywriter in Melbourne, then in the outback in jobs from governess on a Queensland sheep station and cook on a huge cattle station in the tropical north, to mining for sapphires in a lonely ghost town. Out of her experience she wrote A Nation of Trees – Australian Rites, described as “one of the best books ever written on Australia.” (The Observer), “a superb description of the Australian bush.” (Times Literary Supplement). She later published The Islanders about life on the Island of Lewis.

Rosemary Millington worked for the BBC in the Home and Overseas Services in London and Scotland and also for a time was Secretary/Office Manager for Marcus Humphrey of Dinnet where she helped develop the Holiday Cottage enterprise on the Estate. Her home for many years was Hillhead of Corse where in addition to encouraging the arts in Deeside, she ran her croft on a 1000ft hilltop, with its cattle, sheep, poultry, cats and a dog and hospitality.

Members of the Oxford Concert Party recall they first met her about 25 years ago when they were invited to play at the Aboyne and Deeside Festival. Rosemary invited them for supper at her croft and a lasting friendship was formed. Isabel Knowland of OCP writes, “We spent a truly wonderful and memorable evening with her. She was such an interesting person. During the course of the meal (all organic food from her farm) we talked about the four humours: phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine and choleric. Soon afterwards ARne wrote a piece of music for her based on this idea - and also incorporating 'organic'. The following summer we performed it at the Edinburgh Festival and Rosemary came to hear it. Rosemary was a wonderful supporter of the Oxford Concert Party and regularly donated funds towards our community work. She was a very special person. We always kept in touch with Rosemary until about a year before she died. On our first visit to Aboyne we played at the care home where her mother was resident, Inchmarlo House in Banchory. The Oxford Concert Party will be playing again there when we visit Deeside in March.”

The Aboyne and Deeside Festival is delighted to welcome the Oxford Concert Party back to Aboyne for their Tribute to Rosemary Millington.

The photograph shows Rosemary Millington on the left of the piano with Sheila Maxwell sitting at the keyboard. The piano is still in use at the Deeside Community Theatre today.

The Oxford Concert Party when they first met Rosemary. It must have been a very memorable evening.

The members of the Oxford Concert Party.