Jimmy Quinn

Just two weeks after his birth, Quinn's mother died. In an interview in 1993 included in a local book, Reflections of Beith and District, he recalled: "When I'm walking past the lodge I often wonder what she was like. Would she have been a cheery buddy and what sort of nature would she have had? But everything is mixed with mercy, because there was a man who worked with my father and he had a big family, eight in all, and he offered to take the wean because his bite will never be missed'. So I was happily reared by the Aitken family and it's amazing the kindness of those days, brought up and accepted as one of them."

Quinn was at Gateside School in the days when cars were a rare sight. However, it was a great occasion when one of the Ralson-Patricks drove through Gateside in the family car, with their coat of arms on the door.

Quinn roamed the woods and fields and only began mixing with other children outside the family circle when he began school in 1916 during the Great War. Geordie Marshall was village blacksmith, located beside the school. He often recalled enjoying watching Geordie shoeing a procession of horses and fitting the iron rim round cartwheels with smoke belching from the building.

He began training as a cabinet-maker with Macneill Brothers in Beith in about 1926 and served for a year as bench boy prior to learning his trade. Each week money was deducted from his meagre wage to pay for his full set of tools which he learned to sharpen and carefully maintain. He produced a bedstead as his first finished job and proud of his work was dumbfounded when the foreman, Mr Gibson, proceeded to tear strips off him.

That early drubbing ensured that Quinn only ever produced finished items of the highest standard - a lesson he never forgot, during his 27 years with Macneill Brothers. He became a respected craftsman producing sideboards, chairs, beds and cabinets. In later life his woodcarving skills were put to use making quality violins as a hobby.

In 1939, Quinn married Jenny Gillies, "a smashing wee lassie that I fair fancied and the romance began when one Beith holiday, a group of locals went for a dauner up to the Spout o' the Garnock". They had a very happy married life, but Jenny died in 1979.

In 1953, he moved to work as an assistant manager at Drummonds of Greenock in charge of the sawmill and was promoted to manager. Six years later he took up a similar post at Clyde Cooperage in Glasgow, later moving in the same capacity to the Klondyke Factory in Lochwinnoch, producing vats and furniture, remaining there until he retired.

Quinn remembered the day war was declared. "At church Rev John Murray Woodburn was in pensive mood. He didn't hold a service as such. He simply prayed and spoke about the announcement of war and the likely impact on our lives and we all went home to reflect on what was likely to happen." Volunteering for service, he joined the Royal Corps of Signals. He served in London during the Blitz before being invalided out owing to an injury.

His lifetime sporting interest was in athletics. One of the early members of Beith Harriers, he joined in 1927, age 16, four years after its inauguration. In the early 1930s Quinn was involved in the fundraising that enabled the club to build the Harriers Hut, still standing at the Gateside Crossroads. The club produced some top athletes in his era including Tom "T J" McAllister, John Calder, David McKechnie, Jack Miller and Peter Allwell, several becoming Scottish champions and representing their country. A highlight of Quinn's running career was finishing sixth in the Rangers marathon of 1933.

Throughout his life Quinn prided himself on keeping fit. He was inspired in later life by Marge Sharples, famed for her marathon running, and decided age 70 that he, too, would run a marathon again. This coincided with the clock on the High Kirk tower breaking down, so his aim was to raise sponsorship to pay for the repair. Needless to say, he was successful in completing that marathon and the £2600 raised was more than enough to repair the ancient clock. He proudly gave that first medal to his oldest grandchild, Colin, but, having four others, he successfully completed four more marathons, ensuring each grandchild had a keepsake medal.

Quinn was popular with all who knew him. A lifelong member of Beith High Church, he was an elder for 60 years, and attended Sunday service until his final illness. His pawky sense of humour and kindness earned him the reputation as a wonderful character about Beith. In the years to come, looking up at the High Kirk clock will bring happy memories of the High Kirk harrier and be a lasting and fitting tribute to a respected man who gave so much to others during a long and interesting life. He is survived by his daughter, Ray, son-in-law Tommy and grandchildren Colin, Iain, Jamie, Alastair and Kirsti, and grandchildren Gail, Greg, Matthew, Alex, Lewis, Suzie, Ewan, Joshua and Claire.