We got two days of holidays to mark VE Day - everyone felt so relieved

About this recording

John Young, the former convener of Caithness District Council, looks back on his many years of local government service and also recalls some of his childhood memories of World War Two.

John, who grew up in a farming family, remembers the declaration of war in 1939; the sinking of the Royal Oak in Orkney, with survivors being taken to Thurso; rationing and gas masks; gazing at searchlights over Scapa Flow and hearing German dive bombers attacking the fleet; the death of the Duke of Kent in a flying-boat crash near Braemore; the bombing of Wick; and key events such as the Battle of Britain, El Alamein, D-Day and Victory in Europe.

“We got two days of holidays to mark VE Day - everyone felt so relieved,” he says. Sir Winston Churchill’s leadership was to prove an inspiration for John’s political outlook.

He explains how Watten became home to a prisoner-of-war camp. “It was towards the end of the war before that happened, and it was only in more recent times that we knew what was involved,” he points out. “Apparently they were drawn up in three categories. Although we never thought it at the time, there were actually Nazis amongst them there and they were more or less isolated from all the others and didn’t get out. Then the second category were very much controlled - they weren’t very strong in their Nazi views. And then there were all the others who were released for work on farms and any other work as well. And from hating the Germans, as everybody felt by that time in the war, we discovered that many of them were just people like ourselves who had no wish to have gone to war and were conscripted to fight for their country. Those out on farms were accepted by the farming community… I think most of the farmers extended hospitality to them when we found that they were very much like our own folk. And of course quite a few were demobbed from the prisoner-of-war camp and lived in Caithness and married in Caithness.”

Going back to the pre-war period, John tells of attending a Weydale school party to celebrate the coronation in 1937. It was, he says, probably the first time he had seen a Union Jack. He also recalls severe Caithness snowstorms in 1947 and 1955, the Queen Mother’s first visit to the county and the coming of atomic power. “There is no doubt that Dounreay conferred a great deal of benefit to the people of Caithness,” John says.

Venturing further afield, he describes the excitement of taking part in the Monte-Carlo Rally in 1959 as a co-driver and navigator.

John had taken over the running of the family farm at Carsgoe at the age of 15 following the death of his father. When he was elected to Caithness County Council in 1961 it marked the beginning of 38 years in local government. John was the only person to be convener of one of Scotland’s district councils from their inception in 1975 until the further reorganisation of local government in 1996.

“I have to say that I enjoyed my years in local government, particularly my 21 years as convener of Caithness,” he says. “I got a great deal of satisfaction from being in a position to help people who could not help themselves, in many cases people who were then the age that I am now [91]… Most people were grateful for what one was able to do for them.”

John also served as chairman of Highland Regional Council’s roads and transport committee and held that role at the time the Kylesku Bridge in north-west Sutherland was built in the early 1980s. It was officially opened in 1984. He describes the bridge as a “masterpiece” and adds: “If hadn’t been for the foresight of the region in building the Kylesku Bridge, there would be no North Coast 500 today.”

John also points out: “Of course Caithness District Council was thoroughly opposed to the setting up of the present Highland Council. People felt that a much smaller council was desirable, and we fought very much for it, but I’m afraid we’re now part of a huge council and I don’t think we get a fair crack of the whip out of that council.”

Photos: Atomic housing in Thurso. Image: Dounreay / NDA

The Kyesku Bridge in north-west Sutherland.