Tumbling Lassie announces new chair and key events for 2024

SINCE its inception in 2015 the Faculty of Advocates’ Tumbling Lassie Appeal has raised over £100 000. With that milestone reached its first chair, Alan McLean KC, has stepped down. He is succeeded by another of the Appeal’s founders, Sheriff Maryam Labaki. 

 

“The Tumbling Lassie Appeal has been, from the outset, a team effort between those on the committee and our many supporters, and such a worthwhile one to be involved in,” said Mr McLean. “It has been a real privilege to chair the committee and to see the Appeal become so well established amongst the charitable activities in which members of the Faculty of Advocates are involved."

 

 

“Under Maryam's guidance, our work and impact can step up to another level in the years to come,” he added. 

Sheriff Labaki is resident Sheriff at Falkirk. An Edinburgh University graduate, she called to the Bar in 2010, where she practised principally in criminal law. She was appointed as a full-time Advocate Depute in 2017 and served a three-year commission, before returning to the defence bar in 2020. She was appointed as a sheriff in 2021.   

Sheriff Labaki said: “As a founding member, I have been part of the organisation since its inception and have witnessed its growth and success. It’s a huge honour and privilege to take the helm from Alan and I intend to continue to steer the organisation in a positive direction in these troubled times, where conflict and displacement fuels the scourge of human trafficking.” 

The committee of the Tumbling Lassie Appeal is also delighted to announce the dates for two key events this year. 

On Thursday 9 May Richard Blake will speak on the life of John Grant, who was the Chief Justice of Jamaica from 1783 to 1790. John Grant was born in Scotland. He travelled as a young teenager to Nova Scotia, and then on to Jamaica. His manuscript records of legal decisions form the earliest set of Caribbean case reports. John Grant was one of the famous Grants of Kilgraston. Richard Blake's recently published book, Sugar, Slaves and High Society – the Grants of Kilgraston, charts the story of the Grant family, who purchased and renovated Kilgraston estate near Perth with funds derived from enslaved labour in Jamaica. Tickets are available here.

On Saturday 16 November the Tumbling Lassie Ball returns to Prestonfield with a “Snow Ball” theme. Tickets are now available here.

Both events will help raise further funds for the Tumbling Lassie Appeal, in aid of International Justice Mission and Survivors of Human Trafficking in Scotland  

The Tumbling Lassie is named in honour of a case decided by the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 1687, Reid v Scot of Harden and his Lady. The case concerned a young girl gymnast, who performed as an act in public entertainments put on by Reid, a "mountebank" or travelling showman. She was worn out by having to dance in Reid's shows and ran away, taking refuge with the Scots of Harden, a family from the Scottish Borders. Reid sued the Scots and produced a written contract, showing that he had "bought" the tumbling lassie from her mother. He argued that the tumbling lassie belonged to him as his property.   

The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard the case in January 1687. The Court dismissed Reid's claim, impliedly declaring the tumbling lassie free. The only surviving report of the case contains the trenchant observation: "But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns..." 

Slavery is now illegal all over the world. It is because this has not, tragically, prevented millions still being held in actual or effective slavery, throughout the world and even in Scotland, that the charities supported by the Tumbling Lassie Appeal continue the struggle to end slavery and people trafficking and to support modern survivors of these crimes as they recover from their ordeals. 

Find out more about the Tumbling Lassie Appeal and how to donate here.