The Glasgow Caledonian Strathspey and Reel Society was born in a house at
150 Woodlands Road, Glasgow. (The home of David Work, Originally from Orkney.)
David was an accomplished Fiddle player, and on Saturday nights his house was the meeting place for rehearsals.
The musicians were invited to play at small functions in and around Glasgow.
The first engagement was for a Saturday night concert in the City Halls which consisted of only 6 fiddle players!
From this they accepted an offer from Mr. David Adams, (the proprietor of the “Red Lion'' in West Nile Street) for a rehearsal space.
So in the comfortable underground bar parlor, complete with bar maids, the players sat at a large table in the corner and played to the guests every Wednesday.
Membership of the society increased rapidly, and soon larger premises were needed.
The band moved on to the Central Halls in Bath Street.
When Mr. Work left to return north, Robert Williamson was appointed Conductor and was succeeded by his son John Crombie Williamson who carried on as conductor until he moved south of the border in 1921.
The baton then fell to Tom Sinclair Rae, one of the original founding members.
As conductor he staged the first ever Annual Concert which took place in the Christian Institute and the hall was filled to capacity.
Annual concerts continued to be a regular feature in the early twenties in the Lyric Theatre, but such was the demand for tickets that the venue moved to the City Halls in 1924 and 1925.
As the number of players increased and annual concerts became a gathering of fiddlers and friends from all parts, it was necessary to move to the St Andrews Halls, the largest hall in Glasgow at the time.
When the Second World War broke out, Hall X (which had been the meeting place for practices in the St Andrews Halls) was taken over for the duration of the war to store military equipment.
Temporary accommodation was found in Cuthbertson's music rooms in Sauchiehall Street.
Concerts were given to support the Red Cross and other Charities throughout the war years.
When the hostilities ended in 1945 the society re-grouped and began to return to a normal way of life.
Tom Sinclair Rae was still conductor, but by now his health was beginning to fail.
The affairs of the society were at an all time low with few engagements and dwindling funds. Fortunately, an anonymous donor came to the rescue with sufficient funds to pay hall rent and other essential items, thus ensuring the continued existence of the society.
