The chance finding of a newspaper cutting has led to the discovery of the origins of the mosaic panel in Saint James’s, and also to the fact that there was once a Chapel dedicated to Saint Olaf in the Church.

It was while clearing out some papers that I found the following extract which had appeared in The Buchan Observer in the Fifty Years Ago column.

On Saint John Baptist’s Day at Saint James’s Church, Cruden, the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney dedicated the Chapel of Saint Olaf, which takes the place of the one built by the Danish King on the Links as a Chantry for the Danes who died fighting there. On the same occasion the Hon. Mrs F.C. Phillipson, The Red House, has presented to the Church a large panel in gold and silver mosaic of The Prince of Peace, a fine copy from Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Venice.

I thought that the extract might have appeared in the late 70s or early 80s and subsequent research by the Rector through back numbers of The Aberdeen and Buchan Churchman confirmed that it was in 1929-30, during the incumbency of the Reverend John Hardie Duthie, that the Chapel was completed and the mosaic gifted.

In 1929-30 Fr Duthie wrote that the Misses Urquhart of Hatton had given the Altar Cross and ornaments for the Chapel, Miss Phillipson of The Red House had provided the lamp and, along with Miss Holland, the pyx, which was made in London, and that the Chapel was already proving useful. The pyx now hangs near the High Altar.

The July 1930 edition recorded the consecration of the Chapel during Choral Evensong, in the presence of a large congregation. At the same time the Hon. Mrs Phillipson’s “costly and beautiful gift” of a mosaic of the Prince of Peace, which she had brought from Venice, was acknowledged.

Father Duthie wrote As it is a work of surpassing beauty it will be a joy to my people of Cruden for all time - and today it still shines forth from its place near the pulpit.

There is no trace now of the Chapel of Saint Olaf. It might be assumed that it was incorporated into the Lady Chapel during the 1960s re-ordering of the Church. This Chapel itself disappeared in the 1980s re-ordering, although its furnishings are still in use in Saint James’s.