William had nine of a family, and what a family they were! The eldest, James, had an injured foot, and became sawmiller for Mar Estate. Of the other sons, William joined the Aberdeenshire Constabulary and became an Inspector. He competed at heavy events, but was less successful than his younger brothers. Alister joined the Aberdeenshire Constabulary in 1858, transferred to Sutherland, then Fife and, at the age of 25, came back to Sutherland as Chief Constable. He remained there for 16 years, and in 1882 successfully applied for the Chief Constable's post in Inverness-shire, where he remained till his death in 1911. By then he had been a police officer for 53 years and a Chief Constable for 45. He became a Member Of The Royal Victorian Order in 1909, and received the King's Police Medal in 1910. He competed successfully in heavy events.
Peter became an Officer of Customs and Excise in Glasgow. He was an even better heavy competitor, winning seven medals and many first prizes at Braemar, in addition to principal prizes throughout Scotland. Charles joined the Dunbartonshire Constabulary in 1863, becoming Chief Constable in 1884. He died in office in 1914. Like Peter, he was a top-rate heavy, and his proudest boast was of beating Donald Dinnie at the caber at Braemar in 1864, when he was 20 and Dinnie 27. For such a big man, Charles had an unusually delicate hobby — he carved walking sticks and fine ivory brooches, using only a pocket knife. So skilled was he that by royal command he carved a walking stick for Queen Victoria, receiving in return a fine oil painting of his father, which had been commissioned for the book, Highlanders Of Scotland.
Not only are Alister and Charles unique in Scottish police history, but probably in the United Kingdom. Between them, the two brothers served in the police for 104 years, 75 of them as Chief Constable, and both served as president of the Chief Constables (Scotland) Club. John, the next son, was drowned in the Quoich at the age of 10, having been sent by his mother to fetch a
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bucket of water. Joseph, the youngest, became a bank clerk in Glasgow, and was a heavy of the highest quality, even as a teenager. He looked set to become a serious rival to Donald Dinnie, but the age of 17 he died quite suddenly. Although the family in Braemar had no knowledge of his illness, his sister Ann, who was credited with having second sight, told her mother that Joseph was dead long before the official notification arrived.
John McHardy, who caused consternation to the organisers of the early Braemar Gatherings, started off life as a shepherd but soon changed to keepering, working for several of the shooting tenants of Mar Estate before moving in 1860, when he was 54, to Strathdon, to be Head Keeper to Sir Charles Forbes of Newe. Sir Charles had a great interest in the Lonach Highland Society, and Highland Gatherings in general. He went out of his way to recruit athletes, especially heavyweights, to Newe, and was already employing John's three sons. Another McHardy family, then resident at Burnside, Corgarff, included two top-flight heavies, so at this time Strathdon was awash with big men, many of them McHardys. A visitor could have been forgiven for believing that it was populated by giants. This, of course, led to many close-fought contests, and a golden age for Lonach.
On one occasion, Sir Charles boasted of having sent 38 feet of McHardy to a Highland Gathering (six McHardys, averaging 6 ft. 4 in.). John's eldest son, Alexander, was in the 1840s generally recognised as the Scottish champion, and encouraged by his employer, he travelled widely, winning major prizes at all of the better known Gatherings. He was not to be trifled with: while in Inverness, he was set upon by several footpads in an ill-advised attempt at robbery. He gave them a merciless thrashing. In 1870 at an Aboyne Games, he occasioned great merriment in royal circles when he confided to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), when receiving a tug-of-war prize, that he would have been better pleased |
