Jack Richmond

BADENOCH and, indeed, Scottish sporting life has lost one of its most redoubtable representatives with the passing of Jack Richmond MBE. Mr Richmond was 75 and died in the Highland Hospice in Inverness after a long illness, borne with a remarkable bravery and fortitude.

Jack Richmond was an astonishing man who had spent much of his adult life on crutches or in a wheelchair following a forestry accident. Born in Skelmorlie in Ayrshire, he attended Edinburgh University as a forestry student and after completing his studies he embarked on a career in a commercial sector of that industry. This was an all-too-short episode in his life, his spinal injuries sustained when a tree fell on him at Loch Lomondside. He was eventually to be confined to a wheelchair, but for one with such powerful an intellect and remarkable an approach to his life, this was no real confinement.

If ever there was a bonus to Jack's life it was that the dramatic upheaval visited on him led directly to his life-long companionship and happiness with his wife Hetty, whom he met as a caring and loving nurse and who became a devoted mother to Yvonne.

The Richmond family bought the Badenoch House Hotel (formerly Anderson's) in Newtonmore shortly after the War, after Jack's accident decreed his direction in life would have to change. His father was well-known in the community for electrical contracting work. Jack himself referred to this in Newtonmore's Millennium Book as ''the golden time in the operation of the business''. His wide-ranging intelligence and his vast intellect became apparent to all very early on in his relationship with his new community - his connection with everything Highland and Scottish, from the Highland games, tourism, fishing, to music, his love of Highland and Irish literature, interest in malt whisky, curling, and especially shinty.

An initial hesitance about involvement in local affairs was soon set aside, however, and for nearly all of his new-found life he dealt with matters in relation to the community in which he had settled with an unparalleled conviction and dedication.

It was in shinty, however, that Jack made his most lasting impression on a wide circle of friends from Scotland to Ireland and for a long time he was the main point of contact for publicity and information about shinty worldwide. He enjoyed immensely the ''champagne times'' of Newtonmore shinty; felt keenly the times when rivals along the road dominated.

A major contribution to shinty and his community was recognised by way of the MBE in the 1980s, the Scottish Sports Council through their National Service to Sport award in 1995, and latterly by the Camanachd Association, which presented him with the Marine Harvest Centenary Award in 1996. The association also made him a Member of Honour, in their select list of individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the game. He was also an honorary vice-president of the Shinty Year Book in which he took a singular interest over the years and he wrote extensively himself in that production and about shinty in the pages of the Scots Magazine.

When bestowing the Marine Harvest Award on Mr Richmond, Camanachd Association president Duncan Cameron made much of Jack's legendary persuasive powers. There were many at the very top of large commercial organisations, Glenmorangie, the Bank of Scotland, and Marine Harvest to name but three, who could testify to that, and virtually every sports editor employed in the media over the past quarter-century felt the weight of Jack's advocacy on behalf of the ancient and noble game. This was an immense and immeasurable contribution to the well-being of the sport. It was a contribution which was often unknown and, it has to be said, at great personal cost in time and effort, with no financial reward.

Mr Richmond is survived by his wife Hetty and daughter Yvonne.