Tribute to Jim Sandison given by Canon Bill Richards at the Thanksgiving Service held in St. Peter's Church Martley on 28th August 2008.
Before we recall the milestones in the journey that was Jim's life, it seems important, that we, as members of this community (those of you who have come from away will allow me this) - it seems important that we acknowledge that we are saying farewell in Christian faith to one who has really cared about this village. He hasn't sought public office or power, still less prominence, but I know something of the caring watch that he has kept for people, institutions and village happenings.
Jim was born in Edinburgh in 1930, the youngest of the family with two older sisters. Their father was Postmaster of Leith Post Office. He was educated at Daniel Stewart's College in Edinburgh and during the war years as he grew towards adolescence Jim spent time on his bike exploring every part of the city (always an enquiring attitude). Jim's mother became an invalid and lost her speech while he was a young teenager and he tended her spending hours at her side. (As we shall see compassion was always just below the surface often masked by his apparently brusque manner.)
On leaving school Jim took the Civil Service exam which would lead later to his working for the Department of Health for Scotland. National Service intervened. He was first with the Royal Engineers and was later commissioned in the Royal Scots Regiment. He was sent to the Suez Canal Zone in 1948 as an 18 year old officer an experience he would never forget. He was faced by many difficult and probably frightening situations. His Army training stayed with him all his life and his loyalty and affection for the Royal Scots Regiment. He felt it deeply when the regiment was amalgamated and lost its identity.
Now back to Scotland and the Department of Health. Jim had been appointed to the Midge Control Project. He quickly found that there was no requirement to work with any application and he was uncomfortable having so much time for golf! It was characteristic of Jim that he was unhappy with any failure to meet moral obligations. In recent years daughter Helen or Catrine would pop in at the Hillside to see him and Jim would as likely as not first ask why they were not at work, or had they changed their lunch hour. So Midge Control Scotland failed to hold him and he decided to make his career abroad with a Manchester trading company, "G. B. Ollivant". He set off to Accra, West Africa as Sales Manager. He had a flair for trading and getting on with the customers and seemed to show considerable business acumen. He enjoyed the life, work, bridge, golf and Scottish Country Dancing.
In 1953 he met Helen who was working in Kumasi as a Soil Survey Officer, and who also did Scottish Country Dancing. They were married in 1957.
They moved into their new home. Helen, the dutiful housewife, was cleaning the bath upstairs when she heard and felt the most enormous explosion. Jim had been trying to light the cast iron woodstove (which was also an oven and heated the water, its trade name was "the Modern Mistress") The wood was damp so Jim had thrown in some petrol. The cast iron inspection panel in the chimney was blown off and flew across the room narrowly missing Jim, but his eyebrows and eye lashes and arms were scorched. A rush to the hospital was rewarded by the unlikely presence of a doctor, (this being a Sunday afternoon), and he got prompt treatment. Two weeks later he did it again! Jim was not always one to be told.
Jim could be sometimes sparing in his use of words. Out for dinner in Kumasi with the local headmaster it was learn't that a boy had cut himself badly and needed hospital treatment urgently. "I'll take him" said Jim. The lad bled profusely, the car back seat was a bloody mess. Next morning Jim and Helen drove to Jim's office and then Jim asked his driver to take Helen on to the school where she was teaching, as he did each morning, and added "and then clean out the back of the car please." - with no further explanation he went into the office. The driver looked and looked at Helen and was somewhat taken aback.
When Catrine was born, Jim, on his way to the Mission Hospital to see his firstborn stopped to inspect the local GBO store. The owner congratulated Jim and presented him with a live eagle which he placed in the back of the estate car. (Jim was not fond of birds). Eighteen months later Andrew was born - no eagles this time.
The family moved, first to Accra and then to Lagos in Nigeria, where Jim remained until he retired from West Africa in 1978. These were, and still are, troubled times in West Africa. The Biafran war made life cheap and precarious. Business is undertaken with the expectation of a bribe or "dash". Jim was known and respected as one who would not deal that way. He would have been very much the exception, even in the expatriate community.
The term "the work ethic" is much misused, abused, today. Jim defined it better (and as I have indicated for his daughters too!)
Back in 1964 Jim bought the bungalow on Martley Hillside to give the family a base in the UK. Helen had visited Martley as a child to pick primroses and urged Jim to investigate the purchase.
Daughter Helen was born in Martley and in 1969 Helen and the three children moved to Martley, joining Jim during the school holidays, while he returned from Africa whenever leave permitted. He came to love Martley, its countryside and the many friends he made.
After leaving West Africa Jim did two jobs in the UK - first with Unilever in Cheltenham, and, when they moved to Oxford, with H. W. Allcock, fishing tackle manufacturer in Redditch. He finally retired in 1998.
Throughout this period Jim was active in a variety of home improvement projects - redoing the kitchen, building his green house, woodwork whilst also studying and obtaining an Open University degree. Jim was always widely read. He loved music, especially organ music and military bands and opera.
And of course he delighted in his family and their accomplishments - though I gather his approval and delight was mostly to be signalled through their mother. He would be characteristically modest about his children, though he needed no encouragement to speak of them "yes" he would mutter, his surgeon son had taken up a new appointment, as if he was afraid to indulge his evident pride.
Tales of Jim's cooking are legion. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed food and this was one of the attractions of France, where holidays were regularly spent. His sharp memory could fix upon the date, the Hotel and the quality of the meal. The family traveled regularly to Austria also. Jim's own cooking, laced with lashings of Tabasco, though not without merit, was best known for the sizzling temperature of the plates upon which he served it - the soup continued to bubble before you.
Jim for all his apparent shy gruffness had very warm emotions and was deeply compassionate. I remember the way he sought to help in many practical ways two good Martley men who had long distressing illnesses - Jan Owen and Nigel Collett. Others will remember his deep concern about the siting and working of the refuse tip, about which he became expertly informed.
When the Villager Magazine no longer had the driving force of Editor Joan Campbell-Grant, Jim took over the business management, accounting and organising printing, ensuring its financial viability. He was dedicated to finding people to edit, manage the advertising, chair, - doing the behind the scenes work and determined that it should be a worthy, politically neutral, community magazine. Martley owes him a debt of gratitude for this ten year piece of work.
In these and other considerations this community has much for which to remember Jim Sandison.
But his family was the heart of his life of course. We can only respect their sense of loss, their gratitude and love and the privacy of their remembrance.
Daughter Helen's children write "I love my Grandpa because when I was looking at stuff he told me all about it", "I love my Grandpa because for my birthday he made me a big doll's house", "When I ask my Grandpa any question he will tell me the answer". There is a tribute.
Jim was a great supporter of his family in their separate activities - especially of Helen his wife in her work in Education and in the pursuit of her own degree in Theology in recent times.
Jim was a Presbyterian by background -- and (in some respects) - in his formation. He was clearly delighted in Catrine's service as Churchwarden and supported her (and Helen) as if they were his conduits into faith always quizzing them on their return from Divine Service on Sunday.
Jim had a circle of friends with whom he regularly drank, mostly at the Rodney. Two incidental observations: 1. When the pub had live music Jim drank elsewhere. He did not believe in music in pubs; well, every man has his principle. 2. Jim and his friends have long been friendly and kindly to the Rector of the day - Canon Leatherbarrow, Canon Lunt, Harold Goddard, and I, and I believe, the present clergy have all enjoyed their hospitable company. --- And so it was (whether this is apocryphal or not -) that one evening Jim found himself unexpectedly (at the Rodney) when the Rector was conducting one of those ever popular community hymn singing events. "Now Jim have you a particular request?" Answer (under his breath for he was always courteous) "Yes, 5 minutes peace and quiet." ...Well...
Jim - for whom we are variously grateful
- held in affection by many
- now free from the illness he has stoically borne
- a child of God entering the rest that is of God’s making
May the soul of the departed by the mercy of God rest in peace.