Windows are listed in approximate Date Order. Starting at the East window and progress clockwise around the Church.

Ward and Hughes Windows

The earliest stained glass, the great east window, dated 1887 is by Ward and Hughes a Victorian stained glass company. They also made the Thoyts window in the chancel.

The Great East Window

+ Effigiem Christi Dum Transis Pronus Honora Non Tamen Effigiem Sed Quem Designat Adora

A translation of this Latin text is (As you pass the image of Christ, bow down, do not honour the image, but worship the one it represents)

This window designed and made by Ward and Hughes (London) in 1887.

The Chancel South Window

“I shall go to her but she shall not return to me”
In Memoriam Katharine Thoyts Nov 15-17 1884

The quotation is from 2 Samuel 12:23 – although in that passage David and Bathsheba’s child is male. King David and Bathsheba has an illicit relationship which resulted in the birth of a baby boy who “was taken by the Lord” after just 7 days.

Canon Thoyts was instrumental in the building of the current St Andrew’s Church, finished in 1887. He and his wife lost their daughter Katharine when she was two days old and this window commemorates her. It was designed and made by Ward and Hughes (London) in 1897.

Ballantine and Gardiner Window

Ballantine and Son, an Edinburgh glassmaker became Ballantine and Gardner in 1905 and it was the latter that made the Cromartie window (which therefore dates to some time after 1905).

Nave South Window

Cromartie
“God’s will be done, He knows what’s best Finish duty begun, leave Him the rest” (Anonymous Poem)

(A dedication to either the Mackenzie family, Earls of Cromartie or perhaps to Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4^th Duke of Sutherland – who died in 1913)

A L Ward Windows

Later glass was designed by A. L. Ward (the window dedicated to the son and daughter of Kenneth Murray and the great west window), these windows are no earlier than 1910.

Ward and Hughes was a very well known firm of Victorian stained glass makers. They produced a tremendous amount of work in the middle of the nineteenth century. The firm changed their name a number of times and some members of the firm undertook work privately.

Arthur Lucien Ward (1867-1944) was born in South Stoneham, Hampshire. In 1891 he was painting on glass and by 1918 he was designing glass for A R Mowbray and continued to do so until the mid-1930s, whilst also running his own business in Ladbroke Grove, London, he was still working in 1942.

Nave South Window and plaque

“I believe in the Communion of Saints, The Resurrection of the body, 
And the life everlasting” (from the Apostles Creed)

To the Glory of God and in memory of
Elizabeth Mary Boys, wife of Major R H H Boys DSO RE 
and daughter of Kenneth Murray of Geanies:
drowned in the wreck of the SS Newark Castle off the coast of Zululand on March 13^th 1908 whilst accompanying her husband to Mauritius
Also of George Murray, son of Kenneth Murray of Geanies
who died at Colorado Springs, USA on Jan^y 19^th 1909

Kenneth Murray of Geanies, was provost of Tain and is remembered, among other things, for helping to finance the restoration of the Old Collegiate Church. A monument to him stands in the High Street, overlooking the Rose Garden, formerly grounds of the Commercial Bank, where Murray worked.

Great West Window

This window was placed by his many friends in memory of
Sir David Monro of Allan Born 13^th May 1839 Died 9^th Jan 1909

Sir David Monro was born near Fearn, into a branch of the Munros of Foulis. He served in the Indian Army in Madras from 1857 until 1874, when he became Chief Constable of the Isle of Man. He was Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland from 1884 until 1904.

Elizabeth Souden/Patrick Ross-Smith Window

St Andrew’s Window (and plaque)

This window is dedicated to the Glory of God
and the memory of James and Ann Souden of Badachonacher
and their granddaughter Elizabeth Bell Souden who designed the window
and married Kenneth Field Balmain in this Church on 21^st February 1916

Information about St Andrew can be found on our St Andrew page.

The ‘St Andrew’ stained glass window was designed by Elizabeth Bell Souden in memory of her grandmother Ann Sim Souden (1822-1913) although it was not constructed until 1987 (the centenary of the Church) by local art teacher Patrick Ross-Smith (who also constructed several windows in Dornoch Cathedral for glass designer Alison Kinnaird). Ross-Smith went on to become a full-time stained glass maker, first in Orkney and then Shetland. Tain Museum has a painting of Ann Sim Souden also painted by her granddaughter Ann.

William Wilson Windows

On the North side of the Church there are two stained glass windows by William Wilson RSA (1905–1972), one of Scotland’s finest artists, working in stained glass, print and watercolours, who learned stained glass making in an apprenticeship with James Ballantine at Ballantine and Gardner in Edinburgh. Wilson taught stained glass making at Edinburgh College of Art and started his own studio in 1937, making stained glass windows for Canterbury Cathedral and a number of Scottish Churches (including St Andrew’s, Tain, St Machar Cathedral, Aberdeen and Glasgow Cathedral and Dornoch Cathedral). During his career he produced over 300 windows, for churches, cathedrals and secular buildings all over Scotland.

North Window to Dorcas and St Margaret of Scotland (and plaque)

This window is placed here to the Glory of God and in memory of
Florence Mabel Isabel Readhead of Pollo 1875-1951

This windows has two panels,

1) to Dorcas or Tabitha who was an early disciple of Jesus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. She lived in the port city of Joppa and Acts describes her as being known for her “good works and acts of mercy”.

2) to St Margaret of Scotland who married Malcolm III of Scotland in 1070. Margaret was a very pious Christian, and among many charitable works she established a ferry across the Firth of Forth in Scotland for pilgrims travelling to St Andrews in Fife, which gave the towns of North and South Queensferry their names.

Ronald Ross Munro Macdonald was born at Knockbreck House and established Macdonald and Sandison solicitors Tain. He built Moulinard House and spent his married life there. (unrelated members of St Andrew’s congregation still live in both these houses). Ronnie played the organ at St Andrews for many years though he could not read music. He was married to Dulcie, daughter of Florence Mabel Isabel Readhead of Pollo. The Readheads had a well respected ship-building business in South Shields. 

The Chancel North Window (Musicians Window)

Ross of Pitcalnie

The Ross family were Earls of Ross. Ethel Frances Sarah Williamson Ross who was clan chief until her death in 1957 is the most likely dedication given the date of the window (1961).

Our “musician’s window” in the sanctuary has three panels:

1) Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron who “took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’” – Exodus 15:20-22 – after The Lord had led them across the Red Sea in safety,

2) King David

3) St. Cecilia the Patron Saint of Musicians
(as the musicians played at her wedding she “sang in her heart to the Lord“).

The National Museum of Scotland has in its collections a watercolour, pencil and ink sketch, William Wilson’s original design for this window.