Introduction

Biography

Harold was the son of Sir Sam­uel Bag­ster Boul­ton, 1st Ba­ro­net, and So­phia Lou­isa Coop­er. He mar­ried twice, to Ade­laide Lu­cy Da­vid­son (1889) and Mar­ga­ret Cun­ning­ham Lyo­ns (De­cem­ber 29, 1926).

He was the 2nd Bar­on­et, Com­mand­er of the Roy­al Vic­tor­ian Or­der, Com­mand­er of the Most Ex­cel­lent Or­der of the Bri­tish Em­pire, Knight of Jus­tice of the or­der of St. John of Je­ru­sa­lem, Jus­tice of the peace, Mas­ter of Arts of Bal­li­ol Col­lege Ox­ford, Di­rect­or of the Roy­al Acad­emy of Mu­sic of Copped Hall, Cam­ber­ley and Inch Ken­neth, Argyll.

He was known as both a phi­lan­thro­pist and po­et. He be­came in­ter­est­ed in Scot­tish folk songs as an un­der­gra­du­ate at Ox­ford.

He is per­haps best re­mem­bered as au­thor of the lyr­ics to the Skye Boat Song. It tells of the jour­ney of Prince Charles Ed­ward Stu­art (Bon­nie Prince Char­lie) from Ben­be­cu­la to the Isle of Skye as he evad­ed cap­ture af­ter his de­feat in the 1746 Bat­tle of Cul­lo­den.