The Rev. Donald John Gillies was born on St Kilda in 1901. He left in 1924 and subsequently moved to Nova Scotia. In his later years he travelled widely and maintained close contacts with the surviving inhabitants of St Kilda. In August 1980 he returned to St Kilda for the rededication of the recently restored church on the 50th anniversary of the evacuation of the island and preached the sermon in the service to celebrate that occasion. He died in Vancouver in 1994.
John Randall has been Chairman of The Islands Book Trust since 2002 and has edited and published many books on the history of Scottish islands, including St Kilda. He is co-author of St Kilda - Myth and Reality.