Significant Scots
Alastair McIntyre

Thinking back to my early youth I realise that I was particularly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to see much of the Middle East and to experience a life style that really no longer exists. It is this which has prompted me to develop this homepage as perhaps some of the folk I used to know might appear and say hello after all those years! <grin>.

BORN 1951
I was born way back in 1951, January 31st, in Glasgow at Rottenrow Hospital. My folks decided that it would be better to introduce me to the world in Glasgow instead of Abadan, part of Iran. So.. having done the deed I was exported back to Abadan when I was six weeks old. I'd like to say I enjoyed my flight but to be honest I really can't remember it <grin>.

My Mother and myself in Abadan when I was around 6 weeks old!. Colourised by MyHeritage

Mother in our house in Abadan and colorized by MyHeritage

Mother December 1958

MY GRANDPARENTS

My Grandparents on my Fathers side showing my Father as a young lad.

A picture of my Grandfather on my Mothers side taken in the garden of our house at Croftend Avenue, Glasgow

A picture of my Grandmother on my Mothers side taken with my mother centre, and her sister Linda on left and other sister Anne on right

First picture is more family shots from around 1932 and second set is from my parents travels in Australia in 1949

Mum and Dad at M. S. O. Party in Ahmadi in Kuwait June 1960

Mum at home in Ahmadi

Dad and myself in Ahmadi

YOUNGEST REFUGEE OUT OF IRAN 1951
When I was 6 months old I had the dubious honour of being the youngest refugee when the British were kicked out of Iran. You can read a bit about this on BP's homepage where they mention the trouble they had back in 1951. I even got my picture on the front of the Scottish Daily Express :-). This was in the days of Anglo-Iranian Oil. I'm told that bullets were fired over my cot in the days just before we left so guess I was rather lucky as I'm still here! :)

My Father and I think this was him in his office in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan

My father was an accountant in those days and had been site accountant in Little Aden, now part of Yeman. He used to tell stories of his days there where they slept on the boat and then walked over a man made jetty of barges to get to shore. Later they progressed to a kind of tented village and eventually more solid accommodation came along. This was just after the war in 1946 but I've still got some excellent colour movie film of some of his time there.

My parents, John & Sybil McIntyre in retirement at Grangemouth.

My father, John McIntyre

My mother, Sybil McIntyre

After we were kicked out of Abadan we came back to Scotland where my father got a job with Wimpey building the then BXL plant at BP's site in Grangemouth. That was when we bought our house which is still in the family today.

I came across a photograph album in a box I hadn't opened since my move from Scotland to Canada and so I have scanned it in here!

MALTA
After the contract was over we moved to Malta. At that time my father was working for Wimpey on a NATO project and we lived in Valetta in a block of flats overlooking the harbour. It was a tourists dream looking over the ancient harbour but I best remember the cheese cakes!

By this time I was 5 so do remember some of my days there. I remember going to the Tigne Army School and being met by the school bus with an Army sergeant in charge. I also remember the Palm Beach Hotel where I can say that there wasn't another building in sight.... later some friends brought back photos of the Hotel and it was surrounded by buildings. I also remember the Maratta Club... great gardens, basket chairs and tables on the lawn with white table cloths and people bringing out tea and drinks.

Mother almost had a heart attack...

I was learning to swim and used a air ring to keep me afloat.  Problem was when I decided to jump into the pool and then went right through the ring <gulp>. Lucklly as I kicked of the bottom I came back up right where the ring was so was able to grab on. 

My class photo at Tigne Army School, Salema, Malta

Sounds great... just wish I'd been a bit older so I could have enjoyed it more. We left Malta after 2 years there when I was 5.5 years of age and my mother and myself went back to Scotland for 6 months while my father joined the Kuwait Oil Company. After the obligatory 6 months were out we joined him out there.

KUWAIT

Me in Cub uniform in Ahmadi

Member of the BOAC Junior Jet Club

I remember the VC-10 aircraft as it was the first aircraft to have air conditioning while on the ground. This was truly excellent when one was flying from Kuwait.

I'm the goalie playing for the Anglo-American School team picked for an International match in Ahmadi, Kuwait in 1960

Mother and myself in Kuwait

My Father, and I think this was in our house in Kuwait

My mother doing a jigsaw and another doing some painting

I guess this is a picture of my mother while I was at boarding school and my father

A couple of interior pictures of our home in Kuwait

and a few pictures of Kuwait

This is a picture of a meeting my father attended in Switzerland. I think it might have been in the late 1960's and it was a worldwide meeting of BP personnel. My father is sitting at the end of the front row in the left of this picture. Should anyone know what the meeting was about I'd be happy to add in that information.

And a few more pictures from Switzerland

One of my Birthday Parties

I actually won a raffle prize

Heading out on our bikes

The local swimming pool

Sooty and Sweep

In Red Indian Costume

Archery in our back garden in Ahmadi

My mother and father on the porch at our house in Ahmadi (1/9th Ave)

Gathered a collection of Kuwait Stamps First Day Covers

My Father was in the Masons and these were some of his Masonic medals

I used to go to the Anglo-American school in Ahmadi, Kuwait and had a decided American accent in those days. Mind you my Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul were Americans so at least I could speak their language :-).

Pictures of Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul

KOC was joint owned in those days by Gulf Oil and BP but field personnel were mostly Americans and hence my accent. The days at that school were excellent and I just remember having a great time. At 10.5 years of age I was bundled of to boarding school at Dollar Academy in Scotland. Of course there were howls of protest... not about boarding school.. but most of my friends were going to school in Switzerland and I wanted to go there!

The schooling in Kuwait was excellent and so were the facilities.  We first stayed in a house in Kuwait then them moved to what they called PMQ's (Permant Married Quarters) on 1/9th avenue which was just in front of the Bachelor quarters.

I learned archery and played in the football team and there were many clubs you could join. 

I remember we had a great gas fire while I was there and Red Adaire arrived to put it out. He used my fathers mainframe to calculate at what angle to drill to cap the well. It was just like the pillar of fire they mention in the Bible.

And speaking of the Bible we attended the little church in Ahmadi where the Presbyterians and the church of England served for a 2 year term in rotation. My father was very friendly with the church of England minister Harvey Phillips whom we later stayed with in Dartmouth in England where he had control of several churches in the area. I mind I bought him a snuff box for his birthday.

BOARDING SCHOOL AT DOLLAR

I enjoyed my time at Dollar and I used to return to Kuwait during the Spring and Winter breaks but my parents took their annual leave during the Summer so they came over to Scotland then. We did have six months in Paris which was fantastic. I particularly remember the street shows where they played to the people in the buildings and we used to throw money down to them which they caught in a sheet. I also remember they had loads of miniature golf courses... of course we also saw all the usual tourist sites. I do well remember that at that time I liked tomato ketchup with everything... we had gone to this restaurant to have a meal and I'd ordered fish and wanted tomato ketchup... well the French not to be outdone made up a special tomato sauce for me.. not ketchup to be sure but excellent. That got me started on other sauces so you could say the French were responsible for improving my eating habits.

IRAQ/KUWAIT WAR
One of my visits to Kuwait coincided with another threatened invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. I well remember the paratroopers coming out as I arrived back one day from school to find half a dozen of them greeting me when I got home. That's when I learned to play cards and do a few card tricks! <grin>. The paras got some time off to come into Ahmadi to get a rest from the sun... and get the benefit of air conditioned accommodation.

The guys had a really rough time there as they landed in the desert during the summer when it could be 130 F in the shade. Talk about frying an egg on the car bonnet is quite correct.. I did it! One tale I remember was the then Scottish minister of the local church was so horrified about their conditions that he spent all his money buying them soft drinks, etc. He was due to return to Scotland as his term was up and it was only by chance that it was discovered he had no money left. He was forced to take that days collection so he at least had something for when he got home... but that was all he would accept.

KUWAIT AND PROHIBITION
In the early days of Kuwait alcohol was allowed but during our years there it was prohibited. Of course, the folk that could brew their own were rather popular <g>. Mind you there was so much bad alcohol brewed that KOC turned a blind eye and let the labs do testing to ensure it was fit to drink. Very kind of them.. who says big industry doesn't care!

Golf
I first played golf when at Prestwick as the golf course was through the wall of our back garden. I'd have been around 5 years of age at that time.  I then played in Kuwait where there was no grass and all sand.  There was a kind of stiff rubber mat that you tied of from.  The fairway was just dessert and the greens were finely oiled sand with a harder oil border around it.  When you finished putting out a green keeper would go around with a stiff brush to wipe out your foot prints and ball tracks.  We used to play with a red golf ball as it was easier to see than a white one.

When I returned to Scotland I mainly played at the golf course at Dollar where I went to school and then I became a junior member of Glenbervie Golf Club which was just outside Falkirk on the road to Bannockburn and also at Grangemouth Golf Club.. I got to a 6 handicap. 

My father was friends of David Anderson who owned the Tom Morris Golf Shop at the 18th Green at St. Andrews. He was a kind of agent for David and arranged for him to supply golf clubs to many of the people in Kuwait. When my father retired from Kuwait David gave my father a full set of Tom Morris golf clubs complete with golf bag.  He then passed them onto myself and I used them for a number of years and they are currently sitting in my basement in Canada.

I stopped playing when I got my own business as I simply never seemed to get the time to play. I did get a chance to play at a new 9 hole course outside Bannockburn but on my first swing I completely missed the ball which shows how bad I got from not playing.

BP BOARD DIRECTOR
I well remember one flight back to Kuwait when I was sitting beside this man on the flight... he made out that he didn't know anything about the oil business so I was telling him all about gathering centres, and pointing them out as we came into Kuwait airport. Anyway he seemed quite happy to listen to me. Well some nights later we were off to the little theatre they had there when this chap comes up to me and shakes my hand and saying how nice it was to see me again. My father looked on in astonishment and asked how I knew him... turns out he was one of the main board Directors at BP in London :-) Of course I realised then that he'd just been very nice to a youngster on the plane. Funnily enough my father always said that working for BP overseas was like working for a different company when compared with working for them in the UK.

BEING SPOILED IN KUWAIT
Kuwait was an excellent place to live but to show you how you were spoiled rotten... the local club.. Hubarra club.. had it's own swimming pool, indoor and outdoor picture houses, billiard room, dance hall, restaurant, etc. Well I remember as a 9 year old.. remember by liking for tomato ketchup.. well I'd just shout for a boy and order chips and tomato ketchup. Thinking back that was really being spoiled!

OUR COOK PAUL
We had a cook called Paul.. actually that was his surname but that's what we called him. Paul was excellent and had his own accommodation area at the back of the house. He taught me to play football and showed me a few illegal tricks as well.. I even played in the traditional Scotland England game on New Years Day... I was the goalie! We won of course.. Scotland always won in our games.. quite unlike those adults! We used to get marched onto the field with bagpipes playing and the local Sheik was always there with his family. Anyway.. Paul also got me riding a bike... I remember my father deciding he hadn't enough puff so delegated that training to Paul. Actually one good thing was that my father taught Paul to drive so he could take my mother around.. and as a result of that Paul got a job as chauffeur to an Indian General when he want back to Cochin in India. Paul left Kuwait at the same time my parents retired back in 1967. He said he really couldn't break in another family <g> 

Here is Paul looking at our wee Christmas Tree

Of course Paul was my pal so when the folks went out for an evening to the cinema and we figured something good was on we'd wait until they left. We'd then run to the cinema... it was convenient that there was a small hill outside the outside cinema so you could sit on the hill and watch the film.. you could hear it as well although not too well. Of course when it finished we had to race back to beat my parent returning... and of course they were none the wiser! :-)

KUWAIT SOCIAL LIFE
Social life... well it was great! Think of a club and we had it.. yacht club, motor club, fishing club, model aeroplane club, Go-Kart club, archery club.. and on it went. There was never a shortage of things to do. I remember one day we got the chance to go out on one of the sea going tugs which escorted the tankers in. The small motor launch we went out in was almost sunk in heavy seas but we eventually made it to the tug. One of the most gigantic Persians I've ever seen just grabbed my arm and hauled me over onto the tug. It was like I was just a feather... he did the same to my father so we both made it onto the tug. I have to admit that we didn't think we'd have ever got on from the launch without that Persians help. Anyway we had a great time and I wasn't even the least bit sea sick. Actually the only time in my life when I did feel sea sick was on a ferry across to Denmark and it had stabilisers!

I also got the chance to visit the Neutral Zone where the Japanese were drilling for oil. I well remember that they had fresh milk which you didn't get in Kuwait at that time and what with the meal and all that great tasting milk I can say I was stuffed!  I was then asked if I'd like steak and eggs and went a bit green at the thought.

KUWAIT, THE HEAT
Oil of course was important and in Kuwait there was so much gas that they burned it off and so it was free. It seems daft but during the winter we really did need a gas fire in the house as it was real cold. The change in temperature was such that 130 degrees during the day could drop to 60 degrees at night and so it felt really cold. Of course if you'd just arrived from Scotland you felt like you were walking into an oven when the aircraft door opened.

MY INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS
My father was in charge of the computer dept at KOC and so my introduction to computers came early with big ICL mainframes.

My first computer with my father standing back right :-)

I remember that the room was huge... had to be air conditioned and had copper grids screening the windows. To think how things have progressed since is quite amazing. I remember my father talking about 4k of memory on his mainframe when he got an Amstrad PCW computer with 256k of memory as a present! <grin>.

My father decided on ICL rather than IBM and had to justify his decision to the London board of BP.  He said with ICL he would have two engineers in situ in case of problems whereas with IBM they only provided one engineer for the whole of the Middle East.  The managing director of Gulf oil asked my father one day why he had an engineer reading a book and not doing any work. My father said he was very happy with that situation as if he wasn't there that meant the mainframe was down.

NO TELEVISION
Of course by being at boarding school and resident in Kuwait I never saw television, apart from an odd program or two, until I was around 17. This meant I came from a generation that learned to read, listen to music and attended parties instead of sitting at the goggle box. In Kuwait there were always parties on and of course as most people had a stay in cook it was rather easy to organise. Great times were had by all! The BBC overseas service was a must to catch up on what was happening... of course sometimes the reception wasn't that good which was highly irritating.

READING AND BOOKS
I've always enjoyed reading and while I read just about anything at all Science Fiction has always been a favourite of mine. Am very keen on Anne McAffrey and particularly enjoyed her Pern series (there is an alt.fan.pern newsgroup). I reckon to buy around 5 books a month and also subscribe to the Readers Digest Condensed Books. I think we've got every one since they started the series... my parents first took them and when they died I continued the subscription. In fact on their 100th issue they repeated one of the stories from the 1st book and I was one of the ones that complained about a repeat! <grin>.

Today I also enjoy books from Modessit and also Nathan Lowell.

DOLLAR ACADEMY

Dollar - Welcome to Our World

Dollar Academy gave me a great education... I really enjoyed the school and all the facilities they offered. Being a boarder was actually quite easy... I was in Dewar House with a Mr Oliver as our house master (although I now understand it's now a girls boarding house). An excellent house and I have to say that I don't believe there was any bullying or such in all my time there. I'd certainly recommend the school to anyone thinking of placing their kids at a boarding school. The other good thing about Dollar was that it is in the country.. so as boarders we got the chance each Sunday in the summer to go off on picnic teas. The house provided us with appropriate food and off we would go. There used to be an excellent river running through Glen Devon and it had two excellent sizes pools where swimming was excellent. I remember taking a friend back there in later years to show her where we used to go and was horrified to see a reservoir had been built on the spot <sigh>

I was quite an athlete at Dollar... I well remember that a friend of mine, Ron Johnston, and myself would go in for the annual cross country race. We always finished last equal <g>. Mind you I don't know who made up the list but whoever it was did a very fair job in that in the first race I had my name at the top bracketed last equal and the next year Ron got his name above mine :-)

I was also in the Scouts and then in the RAF Cadets where I became a Sergeant and also obtained a marksman badge for 303 rifle shooting. I also did the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award which included a number of activities such as 2 nights camping, taking up a sport and I chose Judo, doing charity work - I helped to distribute coal to needy people in the town. I also earned my Amateur Radio Operators certificate. And I got a hole in 1 on the Golf Course and won a bottle of Dewar's whisky which was promptly confiscated by my boarding house master although I was allowed to take it with me at the end of the term. I also became confirmed in the Church of Scotland.

Mind you on reflection I wasn't that happy with the boarding house master as he was the head of mathematics but that was a subject I was having real problems with and he never offered to help.  I did get 100% on my arithmetic O level.  In these days we had O and A level exams which is a lot different to what they have today. I got 6 O's and three A's at my final exams which was actually enough to go the University but I decided not to go there. I left at the end of Grade 5 so didn't do the final 6th year.

Welcome to Dollar Academy
One of Scotland’s largest and best performing schools, Dollar Academy prides itself in providing an education that meets the highest standards. This is a day and boarding school for boys and girls aged five to eighteen.

A camping holiday to Sweden. My first car a Fiat 600 and the tent with my friend Bob Brearly who I haven't been in touch with for some 40 years.

MY EARLY CAREER
Well when I left school I joined WP & JA Scott, (now Scott Oswald & Co.) chartered accountants training to become an accountant. I had the grand salary of 350 pounds per year! When I left three years later I was on 480.00 pounds per year! I joined British Home Stores in Coventry as a Trainee Manager and had a fantastic social life. Can't say I enjoyed the work much but the social life was excellent... loads of parties.. I remember I stayed for a time in the top flat of a multi-storey building and coming back home at night got into the lift with a policeman.. who told me he had complaints about a wild party on the 12th floor.. what floor are you going to... Err.. 11th will do nicely! <grin>.

On reflection I will say that the training given by BHS was terrible and so I decided on trying another form of sales.

I should say I had applied to Marks & Spencer but going down to London for the interview I arrived on time but it took them 3 hours to see me.  In fact as they hadn't offered any explanation as to why they were running three hours late I'd just stood up to leave when they came in for me.  They asked me where I was going so I just said to the toilet but to be frank I was fuming so I probably flunked the interview as I was very short with them when answering their questions. I've always regretted not telling them I was leaving due to their rudeness.

GALLAHER
After my year with British Home Stores I joined Gallaher Ltd the tobacco manufacturers as a salesman. Now this was an excellent job in that I had been earning around 1350 pounds per year but this new job gave me 1450 pounds plus company car and free cigarettes! WOW! I was in the realms of luxury! <grin>. Actually I really enjoyed this job and spent lots of time down in Devon & Cornwall, all over Wales, North, South and West... and have to say that the Welsh are excellent people. Especially in the West and South... great people. Some of my best times were spent down there. I really worked all over England from the Midlands down. I was still living in Coventry at the time and so when working in Devon and Cornwall it was a 7 hour drive and so I had to leave on the Sunday so I could be ready to work on the Monday.

I broke quite a few sales records in my time with Gallaher and International Tobacco Sales and would have been happy to stay with them but was told it would take at least 5 years to get promoted to Area Sales Manager so decided to seek faster progress elsewhere.

INSURANCE INDUSTRY
Anyway.. as I wasn't getting promoted fast enough I decided to turn my hand at selling insurance... well after getting people to buy cigarettes I figured it was now time to get them some life cover! :) I joined Hill Samuel Unit Life Services as a self employed agent based in Birmingham and after around 15 months left to join Legal & General as they also allowed you to sell general insurance as well as life, pensions, etc. I can't say I was overally successful but the Legal & General agency was just starting to bear fruit when personal situation made me change my focus.

MOVING ON TO CARNATION FOODS AND RETURN TO SCOTLAND
I was just starting to get established when my father had a heart attack and when I went back up to be with my folks in Scotland I also discovered my mother was losing her eyesight. So.. I figured I should move home to help out... and not being able to transfer with Legal & General I sought another job and got the District Sales Managers job with Carnation Foods looking after the 6 man sales team in Scotland.

This is myself preparing a sales meeting in our garden in Grangemouth.

Mind you it was a bit of a shock as I was taking over from the old District Manager, George Black, who had been with Carnation for over 25 years and he was now one of my sales team. Then there was Danny McIntyre and Walter Beattie who were also over 25 year veterans.  So I was definitely the young one in this team.  Mind you I think I got on well with them all.  Walter Beattie had been writing a book about the railways and he let me read a bit and it was awesome!  I hope he got it published.  Danny was a great gardener and won many prizes in the local flower shows. 

Had a great time with Carnation and this is where I got my first introduction to computers.

The Sales Director of Carnation was a chap called Ron Brown.  There was a meeting in Glasgow to explain the new Bar Code system that was then taking America by storm and he wanted to attend but as he couldn't he told me to attend and send him a report.

That meeting really turned things around for me as it was clear that computers would really take over and would likely make a huge difference to sales organisations in particular.

My aunt in the US died and left me $20,000 in her will.  I used most of that to purchase an Apricot computer with 256k of RAM, a 10Mb hard disk and a 720k 3.5" floppy drive. I also purchased an 18 pin colour dot matrix printer and some good business software.  I was soon producing some great reports for my customers and also for the company complete with colour graphs.

It was during this time that my father retired for the second time as Data Processing Superintendent at BP in Grangemouth.

This was my fathers retirement picture that went into the local paper.

EX-GOLF CLUB CAPTAIN DIES
My father died September 1986 and got this write up in the local paper:-

ONE of the prime movers behind the establishment of Grangemouth golf course at Polmonthill has died.

Mr John McIntyre, 141 Bo’ness Road, Grangemouth was 77. He died suddenly at his home on Sunday.

A founder member of the steering committee formed to put the case for an 18-hole municipal course to be built in the area, Mr McIntyre went on to be the first treasurer of the club when it opened in 1973. Four years later, at the age of 68, he was made club captain.

A man who spent the early part of his career working for major chemical corporations, Mr McIntyre latterly worked for BP Chemicals in Grangemouth as superintendent in the data processing division.

Grangemouth club professional Mr John Black said: "John was a lovely person who worked long and hard to get this golf club established.

"He was always a man you could respect and trust. Grangemouth Golf Club members have a lot to be grateful to John McIntyre for."

Former club captain, Mr Norrie Wardlaw, said:. "John was one of the men who stayed in the background but always carried out his duties in a responsible and efficient fashion. His death is a sad  loss to the club.

"He will be greatly missed. I for one am very grateful for all his efforts. He was a fine man."

Mr McIntyre’s funeral was to Falkirk Crematorium on Tuesday. As a mark of respect the golf club lowered its flag to half-mast on Wednesday.

Mr McIntyre, whose wife Sybil died last year, is survived by a son. AIastair.

Crematorium Receipt

John McIntyre died on July 13th 1986 at Grangemouth, his death certificate stating that he was born on July 7th 1909.

Isabella Fowler Brown was born on October 21st 1911, registered at Yoker. She died on August 24th 1985 at Grangemouth. (I always thought my Mother's name was Isobel although she actually hated that name and everyone knew her as Sybil).

MADE REDUNDANT
I was with Carnation for some 7 years and then the company was taken over by Nestle and we were all made redundant. It was at that time I decided to start my own computer business as I'd been working with computers for some three years and reckoned I could be a better dealer than most of the ones I'd visited. So.. off I went and started up my business...

START OF MY OWN BUSINESS
At first I did some training.. then got an introduction to BP through an association I had with another computer company. That company went down the tubes but as I at least had done a good job in BP a guy there by the name of Bill Stevenson decided to take a chance and gave me an order for some software. Since that order I established my own company Almac Computer Services Ltd. in 1988 and things just continued to grow. I was doing mostly small jobs for them but they then asked if I could supply PC's and when I said I didn't actually have enough money to buy them for resale they helped me out with the first few orders by paying on delivery. That was a great help and this allowed me to establish credit terms and never looked back since... so thanks BP!

This is a picture of, from left, Craig Dunn, Vickie Mather and myself when we were working as a computer dealership. Vickie was the Office Manager and Craig Dunn did a lot of the support work and helped with the BBS.

I might add that I created Almac Computer Services Ltd to run my new computer dealership and the BBS operation.  Major changes were made over a number of years.  Like we used to sell a lot of Amstrad computers to BP Chemicals but we went one better by selling an Almac customised version.  The standard Amstrad has a basic 8088 processor, 20 Mb hard disk and a 5.25" 360k floppy drive.  We would purchase a single floppy disk model then we'd ditch the standard processor and replace it with a V30 one which greatly increased the speed. We'd then add a maths co-processor which also greatly increased the speed. We'd then use the empty hard disk bay to add a 3.5" 720k floppy drive and in the expansion slots we'd add a 32 Mb hard card. 

We also produced our own Almac PC where we could upgrade them by swopping out motherboards for a more powerful model and do other upgrades.  This then saved our customers a lot of money when they wanted to upgrade their computers.

Due to my accounting background I was able to sell complete computer accounting system and at the time used both Sage and Pegasus accounting software.   I remember working with a Shipping Group when they phoned to ask if I could help get the Sage accounting system working for them.  When I turned up their accountant was tied up in a meeting so I just logged in and got to work.  When he eventually turned up he was impressed at how much I'd already done but then asked "But how did you get in as it's password protected?" Well just like today most people just use the default password and never bother to change it so as I already knew the default password (letmein) and as they hadn't changed it I was able to login <grin>

We would go well beyond the normal service levels so in those days with the old MSDOS operating system we would build a customised menu system which automated running various programs and doing backups of their software. We'd also always give them a few hours of basic instruction about using their new computer and software and how important it was to back everything up.

What changed of course was that PC's became normal purchases and so we were unable to make a decent profit from selling them and people would use our expertise and advice and then go off and buy one from the local superstore. BP then put into place a global purchasing policy so as we were a local company we could no longer sell our PC's to them.  People life Microsoft then went to corporate purchasing schemes and so with one thing and another the writing was on the wall and that was when I expanded into the BBS world.

This was also the time I met Ranald McIntyre as he'd retired from his insurance business and popped into see us one day and kind of adopted us.  He was the one that came in with a hot sausage roll in a buttered roll and it became a favourite snack with us.  Ranald had a Volvo estate at the time and so he also helped to deliver computers to BP for us when we were a bit swamped.  He also became an instant hit with all the staff and my next door neighbours as he would tell some great stories which we all enjoyed.

ALMAC BBS
Since then of course there have been many changes amongst which I started up a Bulletin Board Service (Almac BBS) with my then fellow Director John Wilson. We really started it with the view to helping our remote clients. They could upload a program they were having problems with and we could then fix it and put it back for them to download. It saved hours in travelling time!

While we were browsing around in this new on-line community we noted a large public BBS in Scotland was looking for someone to run it for 6 months while the SysOp was off abroad on an assignment. We decided why not as it would increase our knowledge and give us experience of a public system. So, in short the chap arrived with some 300 floppy disks... his BBS! Well after a rather long time we got it all installed on our network and off we went. The service grew to be the largest of its type in Europe but of course the Internet made a rather big impact on it especially when the Web came into being :-)

Pictures from my Almac BBS Server room which was in the garage of my house.
Thanks to Ranald McIntyre for sending me these pictures.

We became members of various email message networks such as RIME, ILink, Fido, etc. and so were reckoned to be the 4th largest BBS in the world and the largest outside North America. This meant we were the main mail hub for the mail networks and so worked with many other BBS's throughout Europe, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, and Africa.

Two of the people that made a huge difference were Gordon Sibbald who we employed and Brian Bullen from Stirling University who was head of their IT department and was an expert on UNIX. Brian in particular was an example of what an IT professional should be and to this day I still rate him as the No.1 person in the IT industry for both knowledge and professional conduct.

My fellow director was John Wilson who had actually sold me my first computer and who I persuaded to join me to look after our BP service contract.

In these days most people used a program like RoboCom which would automate the transfer of data between my service and their own computer.  So on your first visit using this software it would automatically dial up at whatever time you wanted, log you in, then it would capture a list of all the conferences (forums) and also the file list.  It would then log you off and then when you had the time to check out what had been downloaded you could select what conferences you would like to read, mark any files you'd like to download and then on the next run it would automatically download the messages from the conferences you selected, download the files you'd selected and then update the file list with any new files added since you last logged in.  This all meant that most of the work you did was offline meaning you only went online to transfer the data.

Problem was when using the web you needed to be online all the time to use it. That meant a quarterly phone bill of £30 went to more like £300 and as my BBS members were not in local call distance to use the web was very expensive.  That meant they were leaving in droves to find local call access.  Despite promises from Scottish Telecom we were not even in local call distance to Edinburgh or Glasgow. That meant the writing was on the wall and so the BBS closed down and I ended up selling the membership to them for £50,000 but it was the end of a very happy and profitable time.

Of course now that the BBS was down and my computer business was really not that profitable anymore due to changes in working practices.  Like I put two people into the large BP Chemicals plant to do on site support. Both the people I put in could do pretty well anything from fixing hardware and software issues, writing programs, making up a computer cable and so much more.  However BP then decided that all such support people had to go through a new Management company before being allowed to work in their plants and so yet again we lost a lucrative contract. The two people I had put in I allowed to join that new company so they were at least still well employed.

And so it was yet again time to move on but this time I decided to just do something that I could work on on my own.  Having had up to 14 staff to look after this became a big change in my life.

I thus just ceased to trade although I will say I did a valiant attempt to turn the business around but failed and so the business closed with some debts which I was unable to pay and of course I also had to sell my house to repay my personal loans which were around £50,000. 

So yes I did have to deal with all the stresses of a company going into liquidation. It is interesting to note that the only creditor that took me to court was my accountant. It's also interesting that the reason I hung on so long was the promise I had from Scottish Telecom to offer me local call access to most of the UK.  I kept going and was why I took out a personal loan to try and hang on but obviously they didn't keep their promise and as noted above they ended buying my company for $50,000. 

I will note that as far as the UK went I was the first to offer public access to the Internet newsgroups for people without unix access which was mostly people in the University, Government and Defence sectors. I was also the first to offer web access to the general public through my BBS service. I also got the Glasgow Herald onto the web through a Lynx text based web service so they were the first newspaper in Scotland to offer web access.

ELECTRIC SCOTLAND
As at the year 2005 the Electric Scotland web site gets over 1.2 million visitors sessions per month with 94% of our visitors coming from outside the UK and mostly from the US and Canada. Our public message WebBoard has now been responsible for three marriages and there are lots of general friendships being made.

Due to social networking web sites have also changed so at 2015 we now get some 1.65 million unique visitors per year which is still a great reach into the Scots Diaspora.  At this time visitor traffic has changed a lot with 40% of our visitors coming from the USA and 31% from the UK.  The UK figure has been a major transformation and can only conclude that Scottish Independence has made local Scots more interested in their history.

We got a mention in the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Newsletter, No. 14.1, Sept 2002, page 8. It reads as follows:
 
ELECTRIC SCOTLAND
http://www.electricscotland.com
 
Electric Scotland now hold around 20,000 web pages on historical matters pertaining to Scotland, Scots and people of Scots descent and is the largest Scottish history site on the web.  It has now also become the online home of the Odom Library in Georgia and its Family Tree newspaper which is the largest genealogy publication in the world and the largest Scottish publication outside Scotland.

ELECTRIC SCOTLAND USA LLC
As most of my business is now coming from outside Scotland I decided to create a USA company and this was formed in January 2004.

I am actually very proud of the way I've been able to develop the site and in fact over the years has provided hundreds of millions in new tourism revenue for Scotland.  Despite that no Scottish company currently supports the site by advertising or content.

I'll demonstrate how I feel Scots are a pale comparison to what they used to be. In history we went all over the world and made a huge difference but it just seems to me the best of Scots have left Scotland and left the also rans behind.

In 1998 I went to the USA to give a talk to the Scottish Weekend being held in Moultrie, Georgia. They paid for me to come over and paid my expenses and organised my accommodation. What I didn't know was that the following weekend they'd organised for me to be the official guest of the Jacksonville Highland Games in Florida where I had a write up in their program brochure.

I was put up by the Games chairman and in conversations it was clear he was a multi-millionaire and he asked if I might include in my weekly newsletters some information about Scottish companies.  I was happy to do my best to oblige and when I got back to Scotland I wrote to some 200 Scottish companies that were either already exporting or clearly could export as they either had products or services that would be in demand. 

Imagine my horror when not one replied to my letter and despite making many phone calls none would provide any information. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. It was a free service I was offering and with my already good reach into the Scots Diaspora it was a great opportunity for them. So strike 1 against the Scots.

I then had dinner with the then Governor and his wife in West Virginia where his wife was really interested to see how the schools in West Virginia might work online with schools in Scotland.  She said if I could get interest in doing some projects in Scotland she's make sure her schools would get involved. So again back to Scotland and after some 70 phone calls to the Scottish Government, education departments and different individual schools they expressed no interest at all.  I mean out of this tourism and business could have benefited as well as being a great way to promote online education and global reach to our children. So strike 2 against the Scots.

Since then I have never managed to persuade individual Scots, or Scottish companies or Scottish organisations or our Scottish government to do anything. If I email any Scots it's rare that my email is acknowledged.

I also gave a free banner advert in the header of my site to the Highlands and Islands Enterprise but all I got in return was a letter demanding I take it down. <sheesh>

I also offered to demonstrate how I could improve the employment situation in the worst unemployment area of the Highlands & Islands.  I said I would give a free year to the project but I did require office space and Internet access.  I got a reply saying as I didn't live in the Highland & Island they were not interested. <sheesh>

I spent a year with Falkirk Council trying to get them to create a web site to promote the whole area to the world.  I walked the streets talking to shop keepers, local businesses, local people, local newspaper and radio station.  Nothing came of that.

I also worked with a marketing company for almost nothing.  Well I did charge £500 a year for my services.  The idea was to promote the local Oil and Chemical areas in Grangemouth as the perfect place to locate a new Chemical Plant.  The actual marketing consultant had visited all the International companies and found when it came to Europe most located their plants in Rotterdan in the Netherlands. He told them of how Grangemouth had a direct pipleline coming in from the North Sea and how we had brown field sites available, etc.  He found that none of them had considered Grangemouth as a location.  However, a number said they would consider Grangemouth now they knew more about the opportunities.

We built a web site for the project under chemecosse.com and it became a great resource for information.  Like I gave a special presentation to all the contracters at BP at their theatre in BP Refinary.  It was packed and out of it all of them completed forms to tell us about themselves. We had details on local contacts and company contacts as some of them were International companies in their own right. We put up surveys done with local people on how they would be happy to see more plants coming to the area and highlighted the skill sets that were available. We also published emission levels and other information that potential companies needed to know.

At the end of the day we got inquiries in from various companies and banks in America and around the world.  We also developed a news section where the local companies could send us in news of their work and new contracts which demonstrated the quality of the companies available to build a new plant.

So after the 2 year contract was completed it was decided that Forth Valley Enterprise would take this over. I provided them with the information needed to take this over and told them they had six months left on the domain name to renew it. I didn't hear anything back from them until the domain expired and then they contacted me to ask if I still had a copy of the site as they had lost the backup I'd provided.  So I think this demonstrated the quality of the people employed by our Scottish Enterprise Department.  I think this was the final strike that convinced me to move out of Scotland.

I told the Bank of Scotland how they could use the web to make billions more for the bank by actively providing web promotion to not only their own business customers but to all businesses in Scotland. Initial reaction was great but then the Director I had been dealing with wouldn't even return my calls.  I said if he doesn't want to do anything then perhaps he'd just tell me that and I'd stop calling but still no contact was made.

I tried through Wendy Alexander the then MP for Enterprise in Scotland to try to bring Scotland together to use the web to promote Scotland. As a result Scottish Enterprise setup a meeting with their own department web people and the then top 10 commercial web sites in Scotland including my own.  It also included the newspaper sites.  Essentially nothing could be agreed but we had a second meeting at Stirling University but nothing came from that either.

I had previously stated at a meeting with Scottish MP's that Scotland needed to work together to make the billions in new revenue that could come from that. Instead they ended up supporting individual web sites through grants. That has clearly been a failure.

It's like there are some 300 Highland Games in North America but tourism and business Scotland are simply not represented at them. They can range from 10,000 to 150,000 or more in attendance.

Like the Family Tree Newspaper in the USA went out of business and there was a great opportunity to purchase it and continue it through Scottish tourism or business. The Editor for the past 15 years was willing to continue it but despite it reaching millions in North America they showed no interest.

I also had a vision on how we could bring Scotland together online in a giant database of information where we'd split Scotland in to 1,000 areas. Each area would then build a giant database of information which would have as a basis a yellow pages and phone directory. To that we'd have added the ability for every family and business to provide much more information about themselves with pictures and videos being available. Bus and Train timetables would be included and each area would have it's own weekly or even daily news. People from around the world would be able to navigate around Scotland and even pick there own virtual home in Scotland and get involved with the local community.  I had all the people available that could make this happen being led by the Professor who first created the multi-user online game MUD at Leicester University.

I've also tried to take a real community and turn it into a virtual one as well.  I tried to do this with Lossiemouth and also Gairloch & Loch Maree but the local people wouldn't get behind it and so it failed. I still believe there can be enormous benefits from mirroring a real community into a virtual one due to is being a real live community. Facebook etc. are all virtual ones but in my view we should make a real community a virtual one then you'd actually get to meet real people in person.

And then the tourism industry in my view are the very worst as they simply have no idea how to use the online world properly and they are mostly very lazy people when it comes to promoting their businesses.  The major hotels groups to smaller B & B's are all equally pathetic. Marketing people in the so called Marketing and PR industries should be simply done way with as they are all mentally challenged and always look for the easy solution... heaven forbid you suggest something that involves them in more than an hours work as they'll do everything they possibly can not do have anything to do with it.  And by the way that came from a Billionaire I was talking to a couple of years back.

I also still believe that all countries in the world do a very bad job of promoting their countries as so often they just seem to assume everyone knows the country whereas often they do not.

And so all of this decided me that Scotland was no longer the place for me but what might the future hold?

SETTLING IN CANADA
During 2003/2004 I traveled around the USA and Canada spending time in Kentucky and Georgia in the USA and then for 6 months up to Canada visiting Prince Edward Island (PEI), British Columbia (BC), Ontario (ON) and Cape Breton in Nova Scotia (NS). It was at the end of my six months in Canada that I decided it would be great to settle in Canada and so after returning to Scotland for a couple of months I obtained a work permit to get back to Canada and thus arrived back in October 2004. In June 2005 I applied for Permanent Landed Status and received that some 13 months later.  I applied in November 2008 for Canadian Citizenship although that will be a Dual Citizenship as I'm allowed to retain my British Citizenship.

I might add that I've visited several places in the USA, New York, Florida, Georgia, California, West Virginia, Kentucky, Salt Lake City, St Louis, North and South Carolina, San Diego, Michean, etc.

I might just add that all the time I was in the USA and Canada I stayed with friends of the web site who very kindly put me up and fed me during the many months I was traveling. Towards the foot of this page you'll see links to my Travel Journal and my Canadian Experience and this latter one is an account of the progress towards settling in Canada and all the things I'm learning as I get to grips with life here in Canada.

In 2005 I was appointed to the board of the Scottish Studies Society in Toronto and at the same time arranged to leave my Electric Scotland company to the Scottish Studies Foundation in Toronto so that all the historical content can be preserved for future generations.  It's also been agreed to mirror the web site onto the MacLaughlin Library computers at the University of Guelph as I sure don't want to lose any of the 100,000+ pages I have on the site and the thousands of pictures.

As at 2010 I decided to leave my company to the Scottish Studies Dept. of Simon Fraser University as Guelph has now raised the $1m required to establish a permanent chair of Scottish Studies so feel they no longer need my help.  I thus decided to leave it to Simon Fraser instead as they still need to raise money there to establish a permanent chair.  As an update on this Simon Fraser has decided taking on the site does not fit their mandate and so am now looking for a new home for the sites. At this time the British Library have agreed to archive and index all my sites and by 2021 they hope to have them all locally indexed so they can be searched.

Recent Photos...

Here is me after my trip to the US at Christmas '97 in West Virginia...

I'm on the left with Donna, Buck & The Innkeeper.

and this is me with my caffeine free Sprite which turned out to be almost neat gin hence my smile! :)

and from left to right is me, Buck and The Innkeeper with Amanda in the front 
(Daughter of Donna & Buck)

And here is me at New Year 2000 at Kinloch Rannoch. There were a couple from Australia and the chap lent me his hat for the picture <g>

And here is me in my messy office in 2001


And here is me in my new home office in 2002

Became an FSA Scot in 2002

Myself and Ranald McIntyre, Christmas 2002

Beth Gay and myself at the Scottish Weekend in Moultrie, Georgia (2003)

Receive Honorary Membership of Clan MacIntyre Association
at the Scottish Weekend at Moultrie, Georgia 2003.
I was told this is only the second honorary membership they've awarded.

Sold my house July 2003 which has been in the family for 50 years

And this is where it was situated

Celebrating a late 53rd Birthday at Moultrie, Georgia. That's me on the right.

See some of my genealogy here

And see what happens when you reach the BIG 50!

See me getting fitted for my kilt outfit

Learn about my Jung Type Indicator

My account of trying to move to the USA

My Travel Journal

My Canadian Experience

My videos on YouTube

My Sales Tips

My Kentucky Journal

This is me in Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada in 2004 modeling some new merchandise :-)

Became a Member of the Knights Templar on 1st October 2005

And here I am with my mantel, insignia and kilt

And here is me at the 2006 Investiture

Got elected as Vice President of the Scottish Studies Society in Toronto during March 2006 and also elected to the board of the Scottish Studies Foundation.

On 8th June 2006 was informed that my application for Permanent Landed Status in Canada was complete and I was to send them my passport to get the visa stamped into it.

In September 2007 got promoted to Knight Commander of the Knights Templar (KCTJ).

In May 2009 became President of the Scottish Studies Society which I held for one year.

On 28th October 2009 I was made a Canadian Citizen.

In September 2011 got promoted to Grand Officier of the Temple of Jerusalem (GOTJ).

Grand Officier of the Temple of Jerusalem star burst

Grand Officier of the Temple of Jerusalem certificate

On this date also started the Electric Canadian web site at http://www.electriccanadian.com. The reason I started it is that I read an article in the Globe and Mail newspaper where it said that Canadian Children know little or nothing of their own countries history.

I became the newsletter editor of the Grand Priory of Canada in December 2012 and copies of the quarterly "Canadian Templar" can be viewed at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/religion/kt.htm

In September 2015 I at last arranged a new web server to be hosted by Simon Fraser University and the windows server is now up and running.  I am now waiting for Steve to setup the web server on it and transfer the data from the USA to SFU in Canada. I hope that the new server will be up and running by the end of the first quarter in 2016. And at that time SFU will manage everything from then on meaning my time with Steve will have lasted some 25 years.

I might add that when I first met Steve May in the USA he was always a most excellent person and did an outstanding job of looking after the site and my servers. However around 6 years ago his wife divorced him and this had the effect of making him a pale comparison of what he had been.  In this later period it could take months for him to do something that would only have taken minutes to complete. He always promised to do something but again months would go by before he eventually got around to it. A most unsatisfactory situation and so am now happy to be leaving him behind but sorry for him that his divorce so affected him to this extent.

I would however state that it was down to him that I survived during the dot com burst. He essentially was able to extend me a good credit line in a time when I'd run out of money as I was using his companies servers to host my sites. I did repay him later.

An email in from David Thomson on 5th Jan 2016...
David is a world expert on the Fishing industry and you can read a couple of his publications at http://www.electricscotland.com/thomson

David isn't doing too well these days and in reply to an email I sent him he replied with...