Remembering former Oban Times editor Iain Nicolson

I would like to add to the kind words you published last week in tribute to Iain Nicolson.

I was fortunate to be a near-neighbour of the Nicolson family in the early 1950s while I was still a youngster at Taynuilt Primary School.

In those days I knew Iain and his brother Freddie only as musicians who practised assiduously in the ‘end room’ of their cottage. They always welcomed me in during their sessions and taught me to paradiddle with a pair of drumsticks and a practice pad they lent me and which they urged me to take home for ‘further practice’. Much later, the oft-repeated phrase, “The Oban Times is here” invariably meant Iain had been spotted with pen and pad at some local event by which time he was quite likely into his third interview. His attendance rate must have been phenomenal for he rarely missed anything likely to be of interest to his readers.

There is a popular saying in publishing circles that good writers are seldom good editors and good editors are seldom good writers, but Iain possessed both skills in generous measure, together with a knack for thinking up apt and often witty captions. “No colour but Skye sees red” appeared over his article highlighting the inadequacies of the inferior black and white TV transmissions still being inflicted on islanders long after the rest of the country had been switched over to colour.

The paper’s decision to move Iain out of the newsroom into advertising seemed at the time to be an extraordinary blunder, but perhaps it was he who decided he needed a change. Either way, he wasted no time in re-channelling his energy and enthusiasm in directions that were to be of great benefit to local businesses.

Luckily for me, this happened just as I was embarking on a start-up venture of my own, for with Iain’s generous encouragement and support, I was on several occasions able to run whole-page - broadsheet - promotional features that boosted my early efforts and helped establish a business now into its fifth decade.

Iain’s former colleagues clearly held him in high regard and with great affection but I feel sure many local businesses will miss him too – as will the great number of people whose causes he lent weight to. They include some now rather elderly TV viewers on Skye and an 80-year-old former neighbour and paradiddler.

Andrew McIntyre, Barcaldine.