When the Highland village of Beauly sparks into life to welcome and entertain visitors, you can be sure James Campbell is at the heart of it.
When the village’s hanging baskets and planters burst into bloom each year, you can be sure that James is there to water and feed them.
And when Beauly’s biggest sporting event of the year, Highland Cross brings hundreds to the village to have a great time, you can be sure James has had a lot to do with it.
Now aged 87, James might well be described as Mr Beauly.
Mr Beauly, full of fun
Always with a mischievous twinkle in his eye and a ready laugh, James is one of life’s irrepressibles.
He battled considerable pain for 60 years after a road accident in which his lower left leg was crushed and put together again by a skilled surgeon, but this has held him back not a whit.
He defied his injury to waterski regularly on the river Beauly for 40 years and he skied on snow too.
James had to curb his considerable hockey talents though, as his injury made it impossible to play again.
Undaunted, he became an umpire for Aberdeen and Highland & Inverness hockey clubs for many years.
Last year, the pain in his gammy leg became unbearable.
James’s leg had to be removed
Eventually the lower leg had to be removed, and a prosthetic leg fitted.
Less than a year later, James headed to Edinburgh to sit his driving test, but not for the reasons you might think.
He happily drives automatic cars and could leave it at that.
Not James. He re-sat his driving test for a clutch car and passed with flying colours.
Why? So that he could carry on driving his beloved Lotus Elise Series I, as a member of the Beauly Sports Car Club, formed in 2020 with James as treasurer and secretary.
James was born in Beauly, and went to primary and junior secondary there before finishing his education at Fort Augustus Abbey School.
James wanted to see the world
His father Robert was running the family tweed business, Campbell’s of Beauly, and entering the firm was an option open to him, but James decided he wanted to see the world.
When he was called up for National Service he joined the RAF for five years, and trained as a radar fitter, working on the Vulcan bomber at RAF Finningley.
Then he went on a guided weapons fitters course at RAF Easley, before being deployed in the Woodford factory near Manchester which made Vulcan and Blue Steel missiles.
The coveted opportunity to travel came when James went to South Australia, where they tested the missiles for more than two years.
After his service, James worked in Aberdeen for a year, but after his father had a road accident, he returned to Beauly to enter the family business alongside two of his sisters, Catriona and Miriam.
“I was involved with the community council since back in the 60s, I blame my father,” James says. “He was on the district and community councils and made sure I did my bit.”
Realising summer visitors to Beauly needed entertainment, James threw himself into organising and paying local pipe bands to play in the Square every week.
He still comperes the summer performances by local dancers and pipe bands in the Square each Thursday.
This is the first year he’s had to dial back on the physical demands of putting the stage together due to his leg op.
When Beauly bursts into bloom at the end of June, James is out driving the bowser round the square and main street to water the flowers.
He used to do the actual watering himself, but nowadays on two crutches he needs a bit of help.
James says: “We won Scotland in Bloom seven times, and Britain in Bloom best small village in the UK once, and the watering used to take four hours.”
When Highland Cross started 40 years ago, James and his sisters threw their weight behind it, James into the organisation and Catriona and Miriam getting on with the catering at the Phipps Hall.
The trio’s efforts for their community were rewarded when Highland Council awarded them the Freedom of Beauly and the Glens.
“Although it’s just my name that’s on the certificate,” says devoted brother James, with chagrin.
Not a day goes past when James isn’t carrying out some small service for friends, family and community, from taking his 99 year old aunt to the hairdressers or delivering the papers to his neighbours.
He’s truly Beauly’s local hero.
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