William Soutar was born on 28 April 1898. He was the son of John Soutar, a Perth joiner and contractor. He was educated at the Southern District School and at Perth Academy. From 1916 he served in the navy and was demobilised in 1919. Soutar then went to Edinburgh University and graduated in 1923 and it was during this period that his poetry emerged, his first collection being Gleanings by an undergraduate (1923). Soutar 'invented' the 'whigmaleerie', a poetical 'whim, a fantastical notion'. He was crippled during his life with spondylitis and was bedridden by 1930. William Soutar died of tubercolosis in Perth on 15 October 1943.
From the guide to the Collection of Poems by William Soutar (1898-1943), 1923-1943, (Edinburgh University Library)
