A much-loved Deeside farmer and former long-serving secretary of Banchory Show, William Blackhall, has died at the age of 86.
Willum, Bill or Willie, as he was variously known to his family and many friends, was a pillar of his local community and served as secretary of the show for 24 years from 1969 until 1993.
Tribute was paid at his funeral for the part he played in building up the show to become one of the most successful and well-attended one-day shows in Scotland.
Modesty
His attributes of tact, courtesy, efficiency and enthusiasm were legendary but he remained modest and self-effacing about his contribution to the show’s success.
The Blackhall family, including William and his four brothers, moved from Watererne, Tarland, to Little Tulloch, Durris, in 1940 when William was five, walking the family’s Clydesdale horses the 32 miles from Tarland.
He attended Woodlands School and Banchory Secondary School and used to recall the great snowstorms of 1947 when the school was closed for over a month because of blocked roads and having to walk the 1.3 miles to school on top of snowdrifts when the school reopened.
His affinity with livestock started as a teenager when his favourite pastime with his school pal, Hunter Leslie, was pretending to be an auctioneer and conducting mock auctions.
Young farmers
William went on to become prominent in the young farmers, serving a secretary of the Durris club for three years and chairman for another three, experience which held him in good stead for the Banchory Show secretaryship.
He worked at home with his father before acquiring the nearby farm of Bogfon, Maryculter, where he worked hard in the early days to improve the boggy, stony and heavy land with an extensive programme of drainage and removal of boulders, and continued to farm there throughout his life.
William’s passion was Border Leicester sheep and he was highly respected as a breeder and judge, supplying rams all over the country, including to North Uist, Orkney and Bala in North Wales, with a regular clientele who trusted his judgment to send them rams to suit their requirements without seeing them in advance.
Judging
He served on the council for the Border Leicester Sheep Society for many years and was honoured to be invited to judge the breed’s national show at Carlisle in 2019, which he described as the highlight of his farming life.
The Aberdeen-Angus breed of cattle was another great interest. He didn’t indulge in pedigree breeding but it was always black store cattle he bought because of their easy-keep characteristics and the premium price for Aberdeen-Angus beef.
Only two days before he died, he accompanied one of his staff to deliver cattle to the abattoir in Inverurie.
Church
He was a much-loved figure in the Durris community as a caring neighbour and an elder of Durris kirk (more recently the joint charge of Durris/Drumoak) for many years.
William had started off as a boy pumping up the old-fashioned organ every Sunday for the princely payment of half a crown (12.5p in today’s money) and in recent times he was the he one who rang the church bell.
He also contributed regular entertaining articles to the kirk magazine on local farming history and his own experiences as a farmer.
Friends and neighbours bade a fond farewell to William at a private funeral in Durris church. He was predeceased by brothers, Ian and Sandy, and is survived by two brothers, Peter and Kenneth, and 16 nephews and nieces.