Canon Sydney Alfred MacEwan (19 October 190825 September 1991) was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 and singer of traditional Scottish and Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 songs.

He was born and brought up in the Springburn

Springburn

Springburn is an inner city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, home to various working and middle-class households.Springburn developed from a small rural hamlet at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its industrial expansion began with the establishment of a chemical...

 area of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 by his mother alone after his father left the family. Sydney was the younger of two brothers. His mother was Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

, from near Portadown

Portadown

Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 23 miles south-west of Belfast...

, and his father was born in Partick

Partick

Partick is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch. Partick was a Police burgh from 1852 until 1912 when it was incorporated into the city.-History:...

. The family were poor but Sydney's mother managed to pay for music lessons for both her sons and both won bursaries to good schools; Sydney attending the renowned Jesuit St Aloysius' College

St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow

St. Aloysius' College is a selective fee-paying independent Jesuit school in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1859, and named after the famous Jesuit, Aloysius Gonzaga. Its strong Jesuit ethos emphasises practice of the Roman Catholic faith both in the church and in the community, with many...

 in the Garnethill area of the city from 1919 to 1924, before transferring to Hillhead Academy.