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ANGUS HUTCHISON, PRINCIPAL KEEPER (retiring), SOUTH LIGHTHOUSE. .Born Stromness 21.9.37. Attended (briefly) Stromness Primary School, then to schools in Douglas I.O.M, Haroldswick and Baltasound, Unst. Left school to purse a career at sea via T.S. Dolphin. Left the sea in Jan. 1962 and joined the Lighthouse Service. The rest, as they say, is history. Other than Fair Isle, the place you would like best to stay in all the world? Stromness. There is everything there that I need or want. A golf course, many good friends and my much loved grand-children. Not necessarily in that order of course!. What would you do if you won the Lottery? Give most to my family, invest in a nice home (not that I don’t already have one). A few quid in the Bank and the rest to some charity such as ‘Help the Aged’, after all I’m not far off that now. Nothing like hedging your bets! Best meal you ever had? Probably one that Stewart Thomson made in our halcyon days here at the South Light. He couldn’t tell me what it was (he’d thrown the packet away) but it was excellent. Worst meal you ever had? Answer as above and for the same reason. Favourite TV. Programme(s)? No one particular programme though I do enjoy most sports on the ‘box’. Also current affairs programmes such as ‘Question Time’. Favourite music? I enjoy anything from the shows, Elvis Presley, Brook Benton and La Grande Dame Shirley Bassey. What a voice – what a woman! Your most romantic moment? It is all so long ago I cannot remember, but I’m quite sure I must have had one. At least I hope so. Your proudest moment? The birth of my daughter. After three anxious months in hospital my wife Yvonne was delivered of a healthy child. Our relief coupled with our pride surpassed any emotion that I have ever known. Your biggest disappointment? To see the passing of the Service I have given most of my life to and see so many of my younger more able friends and colleagues rendered redundant. Who in the world do you most admire? Without a doubt Nelson Mandela. After all the years of imprisonment and abuse that he suffered he emerged to achieve the Presidency of his country with dignity and forgiveness to his erstwhile oppressors. Truly a very great human being. Who would you least like to share a train journey with? Margaret Thatcher for reasons that are too great in number to enumerate here. What chore do you most like doing? As my wife still works when I am at home I am very much a ‘house husband’ and quite enjoy doing the housework. My children say they are going to have a Hoover, Dyson, Electrolux, you name it, carved on my headstone. What chore do you most dislike doing? Gardening of the grass cutting and flowers type. I do enjoy growing vegetables, and hope to have a greenhouse to grow tomatoes. Hopefully with more success than was apparent in my efforts on Fair Isle. I think that every tomato that I got to ripen must have cost me at least £1.50. Move over Percy Thrower. What do you most hate? Unpunctuality. How would you like the world to remember you? As a reasonable human being. One who had his share of virtues and vices, but fought his corner in defence of things and people he loves.
Sir Walter Scott in the North. After a rough night in the Roost, during which all the party suffered that discomfort which detracts so cruelly from the dignity of sea travellers, Stevenson’s lighthouse yacht reached Fair Isle on the 10th morning of August, 1814. A signal-station was maintained in Fair Isle by Government during the Napoleonic wars. Express-boats were dispatched to Lerwick and Kirkwall on the appearance of any vessel not responding to signals. The American Commodore Rogers had nearly cut off this express-boat some time before, but his people could not outrow the Fair Isle oarsmen. The signal-station was very necessary, for Scott mentions that "in the latitude of Cape Wrath several vessels have been taken by Yankee-Doodle," and the yacht herself kept a sharp lookout. Mr Strong, in charge of the signal-station, received them well, and under his guidance the party did the island very thoroughly. "Our numbers and appointments drew out the whole population to admire and attend us. After we separated, each, like the nucleus of a comet, had his own distinct train of attendants." The natural wonders of the place, facts and incidents regarding its people, historical scraps relating to the Armada, are all noted with a ready grasp of whatever is romantic, curious, or interesting. Mr Strong gave Scott a curious old chair, which he destined for Abbotsford, and which, he suggests, might have been used by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. They left the Isle with great eclat, the signal-post displaying its flags, and the yacht showing her colours and firing salutes. The natives, overcome by their splendour and munificence, "agreed that no such day had been seen in the Isle." |
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