At a recent members’ coffee morning, our first speaker was Craig Morrisson, a relatively new member, so we were intrigued to hear what he had to say. To whet our appetites, he started relating a phone call he received in the middle of the night in Bermuda – that got us listening intently.
Bermuda
Craig was born in Partick and grew up in Largs and finished his schooling at Ardrossan Academy. Not knowing what career to follow he took the advice of a friend and became an articled accountant. The friend had said accountancy was very exciting! When Craig had qualified, he decided he wanted to work in industry rather than for a large accountancy practice. He secured an industrially based job in Doncaster, where he spent 3 years. After further jobs back home, he saw a job advertised in Bermuda – they were quite keen on recruiting accountants at the time – Craig applied and landed the job. This would fulfil his ambition to work abroad, so he set out to Bermuda with his wife and 3-month-old son for a 3-year contract to help maintain and possibly enhance the substantial assets left in trust by the late Alec Mitchell for his family.
The head of the Trust who appointed Craig was his brother, Sir Harold Mitchell who had homes in various countries around the world including ownership of a small island within the Great Bermuda Sound.
Craig found out that Alec had four of a family and had split with his first wife (subsequently deceased) due to a “femme fatale” whom we will refer to as Maggie. She had caused the split and was consequentially despised by the family. Before he met her, she had been described to Craig as a “French-Canadian hooker”. Be that as it may, it’s not relevant to the story, other than that she was a colourful individual.
Part of Craig’s remit was to pay out a small quarterly stipend to Maggie; she also had liferent use of valuable paintings and furniture), so thankfully, he had relatively few dealings with her – she rented a remote mansion close to the sea. (If you are administering a trust fund, then, to me, that sounds par for the course!)
One night, in the middle of the night, the phone rang out and Craig’s wife galloped downstairs fearing it might be bad news from home – it wasn`t, so she came back upstairs -“It`s for you – it’s Maggie!” He went downstairs and said “Yes?”, then came the words that he doesn`t recall ever coming across in any accountancy training manual: “Help, call the police, I`m being destroyed.” He said “Ok” and did so, and went back upstairs. His wife asked, don’t you think you should go over?
Craig drove to her house and by the time he got there, she was being put into an ambulance and the police were there too. Some months later, a local businessman was given a jail sentence for various offences on that night and, as he recalled, including possession of an offensive weapon, a knife, allegedly held to her throat.
Being in a panic and needing to alert someone, who do you phone? Naturally you would phone your accountant rather than the police, wouldn`t you? 😃
One thing leads to another!
Morrison Sutherland then took to the floor; he had given us part 1 of his fascinating career back in April 2025. In 1967 Morrison had received a phone call from the secretary of the then Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle. Would he join a committee to look at the future of the MOT test for both cars and commercial vehicles? The magazine, Which, had highlighted problems with the existing test, and it was also being criticised elsewhere. Being failed, for example, for having a part full screen wash reservoir or less than perfect windscreen wipers was irritating to the industry as well as the public. The committee then sat for two years in London, when it then produced its report, which was accepted by the then Minister of Transport, Fred Mulley (2 on from Barbara Castle). However, the Treasury was not prepared to fund the recommendations, so two years wasted. We still have the test, although very different from the original, see a history of the MOT test here.
The next highlight of Morrison’s career involved a call from James Gordon of Radio Clyde; they wanted to him to join a consumer phone-in programme along with a Consumer Protection Officer and a lawyer. A 1-hour programme, initially for 3 months, its run was extended twice. He told the story of a chap who phoned in to say that he had been to fill up with fuel, where they also checked his oil and water levels, but 150 yards after leaving the garage, the fan belt broke – what a poor garage! Morrison asked what he had paid for the service? Well, he had just filled up with petrol. Where was the garage? Pollockshaws Road. Morrison recognised it as his garage. He spoke to the guy off air later and invited him to come to the garage, where they fitted a new fan belt free of charge. Instead of thanks, the chap said “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”
STV then began a Consumer programme, which would be broadcast live, with the experts in the studio and the questioner and public in St Enochs car park. There was a 7-minute delay built into the programme, to cope with bad language, rephrasing questions etc. of which they usually used up 5 minutes. Morrison said it was a very interesting experience, which lasted for about a year, after which he was appointed by the Scottish Motor Transport Association to be their official spokesman.
The next milestone was setting up The Glasgow Training Group – GTG, after it became recognised that training in colleges for the motor industry was of poor quality due to using old vehicles, for example 25-year-old Morris Minors. The training infrastructure at the time did not involve the motor trade. Training was needed for the future, not for the past.
The company started when they bought a disused bowling alley in Mount Florida, adjacent to Hampden Park. They were approached by the Road Transport Industry Training Board as they were aware of a similar training company in England; they were given a startup grant and funding for all the equipment on a 10-year loan basis.
As they developed, they became involved in other training avenues: Morrison contacted Dell computers as IT was coming into the industry. They provided computers on the understanding that they would always recommend Dell. Dell then asked whether they had considered doing language translation as they had been approached by G & J Weir, who produced numerous groundbreaking inventions in pumping equipment, primarily for the Clyde shipyards and the steam ships built there. Weir also sold their engineering equipment abroad and needed their manuals translating and engineers taught appropriate foreign languages.
Next, the UK Health & Safety legislation became law in 1974 – involving everyone in lots of paperwork ☹️. Each company had to have a H & S officer, so as a member company, GTG offered a service on a part time basis to train H & S officers to cope with the paperwork.
An unexpected direction involved their involvement with Golf Clubs and Courses, brought to their attention by grass cutting banks using a machine with no roll over cage. “What happens if the tractor rolls?” “You jump off!” Also, chemicals were stored, in unlocked sheds, frequently in unlabelled containers. On one course, some youngsters broke in, took the chemicals and sprayed them around the course, destroying large areas of it.
Current GTG training premises
The company expanded into Bishopbriggs, to train drivers for HGV, PSV and plant and machinery. This was followed by a warehouse in Hillington when it became a requirement to have a certificate to drive a forklift truck. This warehouse was set up with dummy stock to make the training authentic. They then bought an old GPO workshop in Edinburgh to continue training on the east of the country.
Motor manufacturers also used to ask to use their premises when new vehicles were about to be launched for familiarisation training. The vehicles always arrived undercover, usually from overseas manufacturers. All other suitable facilities were in England.
GTG was purchased by Arnold Clark Automobiles in 2014. Morrison said that although GTG’s formation had been a bit of an impulsive idea, he was quite sad when it was sold.
What a fascinating career!
Why not join us at our next meeting?
New members are always welcomed at the Club. If you are 50 or over, retired, or nearing retirement, (men only, I’m afraid, sorry ladies) you can attend three meetings as a guest and find out what a relaxed and friendly time we have. That’s plenty of time to decide whether to become a Club member or not. Please check out our programme and email info@largsprobus.org.uk if you wish to attend as a guest, or to enquire about joining.
Largs Probus Club will next meet in the Willowbank Hotel on Wednesday 23rd July at 10am when Barbara Graham with talk about Alexander Graham Bell.