Many old boys will be saddened to learn of the death of Robert (Bob) Skinner MBE who died on Thursday August 26th. Bob was a great friend to Keil School and the Mackinnon MacNeill Trust. After retiring from a successful career with the railways, he became bursar of Keil when the school was trying very hard to stay afloat. Thereafter, he was a governor and trustee of the school and even up to his death, was still a co-signatory on Mackinnon MacNeill cheques, always showing a great interest in the activities of former staff, pupils and the work of the trust. He will be greatly missed.

NB Funeral is on Tuesday 31st August in Bonhill Parish Church at 2.15 pm and thereafter at 3.15 at the Cardross Crematorium

The Mackinnon Macneill Trust is an educational charity established to ‘assist the education of deserving highland lads and lasses’. Scholarship awards are made annually to senior school pupils from the west highlands and islands of Scotland who are about to go to University or College.

This year the Trustees awarded 17 scholarships to senior pupils from 10 state schools all the way up the west coast from Campbeltown Grammar School to Liniclate School in Benbecula.

The scholarships are normally for £1,000 or £2,000 and are repeated for each successfully completed undergraduate year. In addition a Special Award was made to the son of an Old Boy to help fund a study year abroad.

At present a further 36 students continue to receive scholarships and the 2010 graduates produced the outstanding results of 4 first class honours, 6 upper class seconds and one with a 2/2. The secondary schools in Dunoon, Islay, Lochgilphead, Oban and Skye must be very proud of their former pupils.

The Trust also co-operates with the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation to recognise an outstanding scientist and the Joint Scholarship award for 2010 was made to Kevin Donkers from Uist. Kevin had a set of excellent Highers , all at A and 4 of these at band 1, and will now go to the University of Glasgow to read Chemical Physics.

The Trust has also forged a link with The Applecross Trust and intend next year to offer a joint scholarship to a school leaver intending to follow a course of study of direct relevance to the Applecross peninsula.

Thomas S Smith (Clerk)

Apologies to anyone trying to get in touch lately, the trickle of emails I was receiveing now seems to have dried up… I await some news from our ISP.

But not many are as interesting as Duncan Airlie James. A Keil boy from 1974-79, known as Duncan Campbell in those days. Duncan played prop for Glasgow schools and went on to become a 6 times World Muay-Thai champion, musician and Holywood actor…

For all the inaccurate information, you can as usual turn to Wikipedia:
Wikipedia Link

An Interesting Herald article.
Herald link

Older article

[Corrected 8th June 2010]

I have some good news to report about a truly inspirational French teacher who was at Keil from 1968-69.

He is Monsieur Francis Legee, and he came to Keil from his home town of Epernay in the Champagne area of France to teach French for one year as part of an exchange with Mr Robinson.

My first recollection of M Legee was when he arrived at the School in a huge two tone electric blue Desoto. An American car which was first owned by Princess Grace of Monaco!

M Legee was a brilliant teacher as he not only taught French language but also gave us an insight into the French way of life. I can always remember his impromptu classes on the French Appelation system and another on how Champagne is made. He always smoked Gauloises which added to the atmosphere.

To cut a very long story short, I have kept in touch with M Legee and his family since 1969 and my own parents have had a holiday house next to his in the Department of the Creuse near Limoges for over 15 years.

I visited M Legee last week in the Creuse and he is very much alive and well at the modest age of 86. We had a long chat (in English) about life and the causes of the French Revolution. He has a theory that the French Revolution may have been encouraged by the Icelandic Volcano which erupted in 1789 and caused successive crop failures in Europe for the following three years.

Sadly, the Desoto has now been sold but was last seen in a barn in the Creuse only five years ago and still looking pristine.

M Legee would like to hear from any teachers or pupils who remember him. Please contact me at mrussell1@btinternet.com and I will forward his address. Sadly, he remains a technophobe so email contact is out. He still paints pictures and sells them and always has a bottle of champagne open for visitors.

Martin Russell

Well, the numbers weren’t quite what we’d have hoped for, but clashing with the Champions league final, a surprise 60th birthday party and a fairly large Italian wedding didn’t help although most of the 50 or so guests seemed to have a good enough time of it.

We tried to market the event through facebook and email with a fairly late mailshot coming out along with the membership cards. Facebook provided 32 confirmations, 34 maybe, 66 Not coming and 54 no replies. As disapointing as that is, at least it gives us something of an idea of the type of penetration we can expect when using the social networkiong sites as our ‘marketing / advertising’.

As is typical with Old Boys events, most people came as part of a larger group and perhaps the committee have to think about that a wee bit more, finding some ‘local event champions’.

As for the event though, the venue was ideal for a KSOB event, with the GUU providing the debating room as a dance floor and the bar in the reading room - it was hoped that the venue alone would resonate with our membership, and that certainly seemed to be the case with Finlay Kerr Snr who tells us that he enjoyed his first pint in the venue back in 1959 for the princely sum of “1 and 2″ (ask your dad if you’re not sure what that means!).

Martin Coombs provided a terrific wee slide show of the many pictures that he collected during his time at Keil and we left that running for the duration of the event, creating plenty of amusement and stirring not a few memories.

The Jigger’s Ceilidh band struck all the right notes, calling each dance and generally entering the spirit of the occasion. This helped to ensure that the dance floor stayed busy all night, whilst they filled in between dances with some cracking wee tunes, allowing us to regain our breath and enjoy a wee bit of beer craic.

I’d think that we should have another go at hosting a similar event next year and would hope that more of our members past and present would come along.

Finlay ‘Late but in Earnest’ Kerr’s stag weekend involved a trip down to the borders to take part in the Melrose Veteran’s tens tournament on the Friday, enjoy the 7’s on the Saturday and a night out in Edinburgh to finish of the weekend.

With myself (Jim MacFarlane) and Finlay dusting off the boots, we turned out for a Madras side that ended the day unbeaten. A draw with Orkney cost a place in the main final againt the home side, but the bowl final against Morgan Academy saw the Stag turn back the years and speed over for what was to be the winning try under the posts.

Aye, it’s great to be young!
Webchief

Jim MacLean is hoping to run another fishing trip to the lake of Menteith in June. If you’re interested, can you drop Jim an email on j_maclean@ntlworld.com or myself, webchief@keilschoololdboysclub.co.uk.

Tickets for the Ceilidh at Glasgow university union on 22 May are now available.

£25 per person (includes evening Buffet)
Jiggers Ceilidh Band plus an Old Boys Collective

Contact
Jim MacFarlane
19 Nigel Gardens
Glasgow
G41 3UQ

or
Lesley Currie
16 Sunningdale Place,
Helensburgh
G84 7JB

Please make cheques payable to Keil School Old Boys Club.

Electronic transfers can be arranged if need be.
Linda Boyd & Alan Thomson are also able to distribute tickets if you are in contact with them.

James Woodrow has reminded me that I promised the agm I would publish the excellent Herald obituary for Dr. John MacLeod. Those present may recall that Dr. Ian Brown had told us of the glowing full page tribute published in the Lancet.
Alas, my scanner has failed to adequately capture the Herald entry - due to it’s size, however I did manage to find on the internet the following links to a number of Obituaries on the rural GP web site.

http://ruralgp.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/tributes-to-dr-john-macleod-obe-gp-lochmaddy/