THE exploits of a wartime minister dubbed the “Tartan Pimpernel” are to be performed on stage on his home island for the first time.
Playwright John Hughes dramatised the story of Rev Dr Donald Caskie after learning that his Gaelic Bible had been returned to the Church of Scotland last year.
The Islay native was called to lead the Scots Kirk in Paris five years before Nazi forces invaded.
He aided the escape of an estimated 2000 Allied servicemen from occupied France through a network of safe routes to Spain, using Gaelic to conceal information from his enemies.
Fleeing Paris for Marseille, he refused removal on the last ship to the UK and instead lived a double life as the manager of a Seaman’s Mission. He was eventually recruited by British Intelligence and his mission became the last link of a chain of safe houses stretching from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France to Marseille in the south.
Condemned to death after being betrayed, he was saved from execution after a German clergyman appealed to Berlin for clemency.
In later years the profits from his memoir, titled the Tartan Pimpernel, helped rebuild the Parisian church where he had denounced the Nazis.
Now the three-man play based on his incredible life is to be performed on the island where he grew up for the first time, with his nephew Tom Caskie set to be amongst the audience at Bowmore Hall next month.
The minister, who received honours in both the UK and France for his efforts, returned to Scotland following his release from a prisoner of war camp, and is buried in the family grave at Bowmore.
Tom said: “It is most fitting that the play should be staged in a hall that would have rung with laughter and music over a hundred years ago, as the young Donald first learned Scottish country dancing, just yards from his family home.
“Now younger generations can learn of his exploits in a place that he had loved.”
Ahead of the November 3 show, Playwright Hughes commented: “We wanted to take the play about the story of this forgotten Scottish minister back to his home town of Bowmore to celebrate his life on the island where he was born.
“This is where his character was formed sitting at the peat fire listening to his mother and attending Sunday school.
“It is the place where he first learned the French and Gaelic languages that would prove useful during the war.”
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