Early Life
He was born at Osgaig on the island of Raasay on 26 October 1911, where Scottish Gaelic was the first language. He attended the University of Edinburgh and was an avid shinty player playing for the university team. After earning a First class degree, he returned to the Highland and Island community to teach. He was instrumental in preserving the teaching of Gaelic in Scottish schools.
MacLean turned away from the Presbyterian faith of his community in his early teens. Like many European intellectuals of that day, he moved in sympathy to with the far left. Much of his work touched on specifically political themes and references, and his position was overtly Stalinist until the mid-1940s, although he was never a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He was also a skilled and delicate writer of love poetry.
He served with the British Army in North Africa during World War II and was wounded on three occasions, once severely during the Battle of El Alamein. He died in 1996.
Read more about this topic: Sorley MacLean
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