Globusz^® Publishing 

I was very surprised to receive a letter signed by a Lord Cameron, who was completely unknown to me. His letter was brief. It stated that he would like to meet with me, having heard of my successful management of Enniskerry. He was now in a position to make me a profitable offer to purchase the island. I thought this was an extremely quick proposal my having only just completed one year of occupation.

I went directly round to see Giles and asked him if he knew of Lord Cameron or his organisation and whether he had any knowledge about why he should make an offer to buy the island.

“Yes, I know him. He is on the board of several companies, and was a financial director at Rio Tinto when I last met him in Brazil. He got wind of my living here and asked if ever I wanted to sell, he would pay a good price. I told him that I was not the owner, you were.”

“Why would he want to buy?”

“Generally it would purely be for investment but I have a sneaking feeling that he is moving to buy more real estate. Recently he has bought some prime shooting moorland from the Duke of Devonshire, which is somewhat out of character. He seems to believe that to own an island would be another feather in his cap.”

My immediate thought was that I must have been doing something right for the island if this person was prepared to buy it.

“Did you encourage him to contact me?” I asked.

“No but I didn’t discourage him either, I just told him that I would be very surprised if you would consider selling.”

“Well that’s absolutely right.” I was sure that I would never consider such a proposition but I thought that I would press Giles a little further.

“Do you think that I should consider his request?”

“I wouldn’t have the temerity to advise you Jim. I come from a world where money and possessions are paramount. This is what drives these people. You and I know that millions of pounds are paid for works of art, just paint on a small area of canvas, yet you can have something hanging on your wall aesthetically more pleasing to you for just a few pounds. For some people, it is the financial value and the actual possession, together with the anticipation that the value will increase to make them an even greater profit. You I believe — and I hope what I say, will not offend you — see it more like my grandmother. Before she died, she had a beloved trinket which she would not sell for whatever money she was offered. Therefore, my only advice is this; take an arbitrary figure that this man could offer you, lets say eight million pounds, which would be a huge profit for you, made in a very short time. Ask yourself; what would you do with it? Then assuming that you would reject his offer because of your love for the island, ask yourself is there really a top figure that you just could not refuse? Would you like my old grandmother, say no to 80 million pounds? I’m not saying he will offer anything near this amount but you have to look inside yourself to know whether you are a grandmother or not!”

I laughed at the way Giles looked at it. His comments were helpful. It was also ironical, for he had in effect, asked the same question that my colleague Ron had asked us in that London pub before I told them the news of my lottery win. That was a time when I did know what I was going to do with the money.

“You may see me as a bit of a wimp, Giles, but if I sold I wouldn’t know what to do with that sort of money whether it be eight or eighty million. This island has become my life and now I would feel lost without it.”

“I do understand. My situation is that, since being here, I have been able to evaluate and see both sides. I admire what is happening here, but I cannot completely sever myself from my upbringing and past history of successes. As I slowly recover I am beginning to live in two worlds, one here in simple tranquillity with you and new friends, the other where I still have a hankering to involve myself with some of the business affairs of my past.”

“Do you want to take a more active roll here?”

“No, I don’t think so, but I may pass a few ideas to you from time to time. For instance, I was thinking we might benefit from a heliport or airstrip here one day soon.”

“Do we really need one?”

“I do, or rather I will, if I continue to live here and carry on with some interests I have beyond these shores. Also it would be very useful in times of any emergency. I have a vested interest in my rapid and efficient access to hospital care.”

“It wouldn’t cost very much for the helicopter pad if it becomes necessary, but I can’t go to a helicopter.” I said.

“No, I wouldn’t dream of asking you to do that, I would be able to finance it, but since we are talking in this way I would like to share with you some more of my thoughts about my future here. It’s more a personal thing and not for a committee discussion. Do you mind?”

“Of course not Giles, carry on.”

“It really starts with my improving health, but first, I must convince you that I am more than happy to continue living here. Having said that, I have this urge and want soon to operate in both worlds. Approaches have been made for me to reconsider directorships that I have in the past turned down, but now I am tempted to respond positively to them. I am also inclined to reinstate several of my previous business ventures. Obviously in so doing, I have to consider the practicalities of operating this part of my life from this remote island, together with my desire to continue to live here.”

“Hence the helicopter?”

“Yes, but I am conscious that this would be progress in excess of what you had in mind for the island.”

“It certainly is quite early for me to consider expanding in this way, I would have to assess its impact upon our daily lives. It’s not so much the helicopter; it’s the direction of your ongoing requirements and the impact of different lifestyles. Would you not, in many ways, be remote in your way of life from the islanders and our interests here?”

“I can see your concern and I would try to continue to be part of the community. I value it tremendously.”

“I imagine that you would soon want your heliport to be expanded to an airstrip.”

“Yes Jim, I can see your anxiety and you’re right. In fact given the right circumstances it could replace a helicopter and port. Both would not be necessary. Let me put more of my cards on the table. If I go ahead with my idea I would need fairly constant access to the mainland and abroad. This could only reasonably be achieved by aeroplane from here. I would need a personal assistant, with a pilot’s licence, who would need to live on the island while I was here. I would like to have built a larger house to accommodate visitors and myself. These are in a way practicalities that can be paid for. What I really need is the understanding and co-operation of yourself and the islanders.”

“I don’t feel that I can stand in your way any more than I would prevent anyone trying to improve their lot, even if it were on a smaller scale. What I have to do, and maybe what you will have to do also, is convince myself and then the committee that your scheme and requirements will have some benefit to the islands economy and do not impinge unduly on our peaceful way of life here.”

“There would be some benefit in that I would ask your building company to construct my new house, but you may see that as a disadvantage if you are trying to build quickly for other purposes. I see the main advantages to the island as being financial together with the opening up of the island to outside influences, much along similar lines to how I have heard Ken express his views on the future of the island.”

When it eventually came to presenting a request to the committee for approval to go ahead with his requirements, Giles made it quite clear that unless every member of the council was in agreement and it was passed with a 100% vote to go ahead he would not consider proceeding. It certainly concentrated the minds of most of us, each one being aware of the responsibility if their one vote was the one that would stop him and cancel out what could be a valuable investment for the island. It could possibly lead to his departure

Miranda had spent all her spare time in following weeks canvassing to measure what support existed for Giles and his idea and she was able to come to the meeting with valuable information about the degree of backing that could be expected. All members of the committee, apart from Giles, who abstained, voted in favour and no one expressed any doubts. It was a measure of the respect that Giles had already built up, that he was trusted to have the best interests of the island at heart, whilst still pursuing his own interests.

Shortly after my talk with Giles, Lord Cameron made yet another approach, requesting a meeting with me about his offer to buy that I again rejected. He asked if I had any objection to him coming to the island to meet with Giles, explaining that they were old friends. I had no reason to resist his coming but I wondered if his reason was to gain access to me again by the back door.

When he arrived I was not surprised to get a call from Giles telling me of Cameron’s presence and inviting me round for a drink with them.

I found Lord Cameron to be a remarkably well-advised and well-spoken man, very careful in his annunciation of words, and always ready to hear another view. He was tall with greying hair and, as would be expected, immaculately dressed, giving no indication of that morning’s windswept ferry crossing.

We talked of Scottish life and he asked many questions about the island, appearing to be genuinely interested in the way I was running it. The discussion then turned to hunting and shooting opportunities and I felt that he might well have considered the purchase of the island for this purpose. He was polite enough not to raise again the matter of the sale again, but he did give one fleeting opportunity in a passing comment for me to open the subject if I had wished. I suspected that Giles had painted the background quite clearly for him and so he would not have been surprised that I did not respond to the opportunity.

Eventually, we did prepare a helicopter landing area. It was a relatively simple job, but it was a long while before we saw a helicopter land, as Giles did not have an easy time organising a suitable pilot as he expected. No one, it seemed, was prepared to live full time on the island to be at his beck and call. He did have a young man with a pilot’s licence who had worked for him before as a chauffeur, but he did not or would not fly helicopters. Giles invited him over to the island and found that he integrated very well with everybody over the few days he was there. Unfortunately for Giles the man was unable to commit himself to life on the island. He could not envisage a life away from the city lights. I am sure Giles was disappointed at being unable to attract anyone for the job. His mind then extended to a more ambitious plan, aiming to introduce to us the benefits of a landing strip for small aeroplanes. Although this would be shelved for the time being, I had a feeling at the time that giving Giles the green light would be the catalyst for a whole series of events which would make us wonder about the wisdom of opening up the island in this way. It did promise to change the character of the island into the future. It was not clear at that stage whether the changes were generally beneficial or not.

Finding one person with the qualities of chauffeur, pilot and personal assistant continued to elude Giles for some time, so he turned his attention to obtaining agreement for the planning and construction of his new house. Yet again he was very persuasive and before long it was agreed, its construction coinciding with the bringing in of more families with men and machinery capable of completing the task.

Giles then introduced another visitor who was to double as helicopter pilot and chauffeur but to most of us he seemed rather at a loss as to what to do while he was on the island and showed little enthusiasm for the task ahead. Apparently Giles himself was so unimpressed with his choice that he promptly terminated the man’s visit and rather grumpily dismissed any of our gentle enquiries about his lack of success in this matter.

Then, in the course of a conversation on a completely unrelated matter at one of our council meetings, it emerged that John had progressed from his hobby of gliding to a certain level in his attempt to get a pilot’s licence. Giles’s eyes lit up like beacons and asked John if he would like to rekindle his interest in flying. John nodded and said: “Maybe I’ve always been keen on flying.”

Although Giles had talked with John on several occasions in the past when John’s gliding interest had been mentioned, he was amazed therefore, that he had not been astute enough earlier to link John’s abilities with his own current need. After the meeting Giles, as usual, came straight to the point with John when they met.

“Would you be interested in continuing your flying lessons at my expense and then flying my aeroplane for me?”

“Well before I would be able to get that licence I would have to get to and from the mainland myself for the lessons. That could be difficult.”

“Yes, but it need not be individual daily lessons, it could be, if you’ll pardon the pun, a crash course, in periods of a week or more at one time.”

“Some of my contribution here would suffer, I would have to agree the idea with Jim.”

“Certainly, but if you and he were willing, it would allow you to follow an interest that you enjoy and it would help me enormously. I also, am trying to convince Jim that some of these plans of mine will have positive benefits for everyone here.”

Giles asked me if I had any objection if he employed a consultant to come over and look at the logistics of providing a landing strip on the island and I agreed. Later he met up with John again, obviously anxious to get on with things in the quickest way possible.

“It’s going to take ages to get this airstrip organised and completed”— he said. “I’m thinking it would be easier to get the helicopter idea going first.”

“I suppose it would make good sense to operate with a helicopter in the first instance rather than wait for an airstrip to be constructed”— replied John.

“Would you be happy to go for the helicopter pilot licence first?”

“Yes, I would be keen to do that and it would be the quickest way to give you access to the mainland.”

“If you agree, I think it may be best for you to make all the arrangements for the training. All I know at present is that there is a course available near Glasgow. Get yourself enrolled for that as soon as you can. I will pay for it and then I would need you to find out what sort of helicopter would be recommended and how much it would cost.”

Within days John had the information about the cost of a small helicopter.

“As a general guide pilot training to solo standard would cost about £10,000. The Robinson R44 is a small, popular, piston-engine helicopter, which has a cruising speed of 130 mph. It can be purchased new for about £250,000. I’ve asked for some brochures to be sent to give us both a better idea of what is available.”

“That’s good. How soon can you start the course?

“I’ll have another chat with Jim first, then I’ll arrange something as soon as I can.”

Terry had worked very closely with John on several island projects and he was quite capable of standing in for him if required. So when John came to me asking whether his departure for several weeks to take flying lessons would compromise his position on the committee, we agreed that he would try as far as possible to arrange things around the committee meetings. In addition however, given his absence would cover several weeks; he suggested that Terry would be able to fill in for him when necessary. Within weeks John had been off to Glasgow and returned full of excitement at being able to re-kindle his love of flying.