John Wallace Mitchell

Dances Devised By The Scottish Country Dance Deviser - J. W. Mitchell

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams For Dances Devised By J. W. Mitchell

The Whetherly Collection Of Figures And Variations

The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 1
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 2
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 3
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 4
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 5
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 6
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 7
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 8
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 9
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 10
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 11
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 12
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 13
The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 24

All dance descriptions are subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, under which the files can be distributed and copied, as long as they remain untouched.

(31/05/1931 - 25/11/2012)

John Wallace Mitchell was born and raised in Brighton and Hove, Sussex. Following his school education, which took place against a background of war, he completed military service from 1949-1951 with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) army division. He then started work in accountancy, joining the Sperry Rand corporation in 1957 as a computer and business systems analyst. In 1958 he became a member of the British Computer Society, only a few months after its foundation. In the early 1960's, the focus of his career moved towards management consultancy, and he completed many assignments for several companies, often helping to set up their first computer systems, with work taking him to many locations both within the UK and western Europe, as well as to Saudi Arabia. Eventually he set up a private practice in 1972.

He was a keen cyclist, active in several clubs and competing at a local level from 1946 - 1956. When in the army, he would often cycle back to Brighton on free weekends, which could be up to 140 miles each way.

Although he first encountered Scottish Country Dancing in Dollar, Scotland in 1947, it wasn't until 1964 that he began to take it seriously, when he joined the Leeds clubs and RSCDS Branch. After moving back to the Brighton area, he became a member of the London branch in 1966 and in 1967 was the founder chairman of the Sussex Association of Scottish Societies, which was formed to ensure the future of the local Annual Scottish Charity Ball by connecting many clubs in the region. This led to the first day schools and teachers' training courses in the region. In 1972 he obtained a full RSCDS teacher's certificate and in 1975 became the founder chairman of the Hangleton Scottish Country Dance Club. From approximately 1968 to 1992 he devised some 828 dances, which were published in this series of Whetherly Books and Sheets. Whetherly is the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, after which the house in which he grew up was also named ("Whetherly House"). In 2010 he received the London Branch award for services to Scottish Dancing.

John passed away in 2012 after a two year battle with cancer.

(Biography compiled by Alison Mitchell, under the CCA NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, 2020)