Fiona Ferguson, niece of Lt Col Mayne
Hamish first approached me two and a half years ago with the idea of writing an article about my uncle Blair. I was at first very hesitant – was this going to be a rehash of the old stories, only even more embellished? Even as a young girl I was aware that ‘everybody’ knew Blair personally, and, once my relationship was known, I would have to listen to an even better version of a story I had heard many times before. The pubs in Newtownards must have made a fortune from the number of people in them when Blair was there who had witnessed these deeds in person. I also didn’t see how I could help. I was only ten when Blair died – my father had given the war diary to the SAS and all I had were the scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings kept by my Aunt Barbara, letters and other documents kept by various members of the family, especially my father and Aunt Francie, plus some of Blair’s own papers.
However, Hamish had been given my name and address by Jimmy Storie, whom I had met at the unveiling of the statue of Blair in Newtownards and on a couple of occasions since with his lovely wife Morag. If Jimmy was prepared to talk to Hamish it would be churlish of me to refuse to help in any way I could. What I hadn’t realised was that among Francie’s papers, which came to me on her death, was a diary that Blair had kept in the Antarctic. Soon after he had read this I realised that Hamish was determined to get to the true man and was doing his utmost to talk to the few remaining people who really knew Blair – not those acquaintances who claimed friendship so as to bask in the reflected glory.
I knew my father would not react kindly to the idea of a new book, so I did not tell him until I was convinced that Hamish was after the truth – warts and all. Dad has now read the manuscript and is very impressed with the research Hamish has undertaken. No previous author has attempted to do anything similar – they have just reiterated the stories of armchair friends.
If anyone were to ask me which book they should read about ‘Col Paddy’, my unreserved answer would be, ‘the one by Hamish Ross’.