Staff in ferry big vote for pay walkout
WORKERS at Orkney Ferries have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in a dispute over pay.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union backed strikes by 80 per cent, with a higher number supporting other forms of industrial action.
General secretary Mick Cash said: “This is an overwhelming vote for action and the employers need to sit up and take note.” A SCOTS code-breaker has been given a VIP reception 75 years after his heroics helped Britain find out enemy secrets during World War II.
Signaller and bagpiper Hugh McKinley taught German, Italian and Japanese code-breaking to troops and was a hero of Bletchley Park, Britain’s secret wartime communications-busting centre.
Army pipers and signallers have now paid homage to Hugh ahead of his 98th birthday next week. Among his many roles, Hugh was at the Kiel Canal at Rendsberg, Schleswig-Holstein, intercepting enemy information and sending it back to Bletchley Park via dispatch rider, when he heard the German navy surrender in 1945.
Captain Jimmy Scott, director of bagpipe music for the Royal Signals, visited Hugh at his favourite haunt – the Knightswood Royal British Legion Club in Glasgow.
Hugh said: “I am very proud of my service in the Signals.”
He was a proud recipient of the Roll of Honour of Bletchley Park as he played such a major role in communications during the war.
This week, Hugh was overjoyed to hear the skirl of the bagpipes when Jimmy and two of his newest recruit pipers – signallers David McRobb and Saul Bouhadjar – played their tunes and chatted with him.
Joining the Territorial Army when he was 20 as a bandsman, Hugh also trained as a wireless operator in the 62nd Lowland Division Royal Signals.
He was called up two days before war was declared and was sent to Trowbridge, where he trained in the Special Signals Training Battalion.
As a result of the London blitz, his unit were moved to the Isle of Man, where he taught code-breaking.
He said: “Japanese was pretty difficult because the signals were coming from both directions and so it was like receiving an echo.”
Former corporal Hugh was discharged from the Army in 1946 and returned to his apprenticeship as a compositor in Glasgow and continued to work in newspapers, including the Daily Express and Glasgow Herald, until he retired in 1985.
Hugh, who wears his Bletchley Park Broach of Honour, said: “The Royal British Legion have been my life since my wife died 12 years ago – they keep me going and are always there when I need help. Although I am beginning to slow down a bit now.”
Jimmy said: “We love engaging with all veteran signallers but it is such an honour to meet a fellow piper who has such a magnificent history.”