Canon Sydney Alfred MacEwan (19 October 190825 September 1991) was a Scottish tenor, who sang traditional Scottish and Irish songs. His name has also been recorded as Alfred Sydney Marley MacEwan. Early life Father Sydney MacEwan was born and brought up in the Springburn area of Glasgow by his mother after his parents separated. Sydney was the younger of two brothers. His mother was Irish, from the Portadown area, County Armagh, and his father was born in Partick. The family were poor but Sydney's mother managed to pay for music lessons for both her sons and both won bursaries to good schools. Sydney attended St Aloysius' College in Garnethill from 1919 to 1924, before transferring to Hillhead Academy. He also commenced his singing career. In 1938 MacEwan retired from concert work, and during World War II was an ambulance driver and an RAF chaplain. He was ordained in 1944. Catholic priesthood At the age of 18, MacEwan entered training to become a Jesuit priest at Manresa House in Roehampton, London. He chose to study at Glasgow University instead. He completed a Master of Arts degree at the university. Throughout his life MacEwan had retained a love of the Catholic Church and, despite his earlier experience with the Jesuits, chose to abandon his fame and success as a tenor, to enter the Bearsden Seminary in Glasgow before going to Pontifical Scots College in Rome, to follow his vocation to become a priest. He was ordained in St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow in 1944 and celebrated his first Mass at St Aloysius' Church. Combining priesthood and music, he undertook tours of North America and Australia, where those concerts helping to provide funding for the building of St Columba's Cathedral in Oban. He helped with funds to renovate the Church of St Margaret's in Lochgilphead, in Argyll, where he was parish priest for 17 years. In the Scottish summer of 1947, MacEwan arranged for Australian and New Zealand food parcels which he distributed around the parish: If these good people could see the poor wee bairns enjoying the contents of the parcels, they would be well rewarded for their great kindness. "It is so heartening to feel that the poor old Mother is being helped in her distress by her young and vigorous children. They have been superb in their charity. God love them all. When asked in 1948 the clergyman and singer said: