Jimmy Liddell – A Personal Tribute

This is one of the hardest pieces I have ever had to write for the Ferry Fair simply because it has been brought about by untimely passing of my great friend Jimmy Liddell.  I know that there are many people in Queensferry who have known Jimmy for much longer than I have and will have their own personal memories of a really good man.  This is why I am going to concentrate on Jimmy and the Ferry Fair because, in reality, I only met Jimmy because of the fair.                            

It was 1987, the Ferry Fair was in crisis and in imminent danger of collapse, a final meeting had been arranged to try and form a committee to continue what I have come to realise is a much loved part of Queensferry life.  At this meeting, which I had been dragged along to by another friend (Sooty), I was persuaded to join the newly formed committee which had Jimmy as its Vice-Chairman.  Strangely through all the years Jimmy never seemed particularly interested in being Chairman even though it was frequently suggested, I can only think it was down to Jimmy’s desire to be in the thick of it organising things on the ground.  He frequently commented that the Chairman’s role involved far too much posing!!

That first year was certainly exciting if only because the committee was only formed in May, there was no money and a fair to run in August.  As those of you who knew him this didn’t deter Jimmy one bit and after it was decided that we couldn’t get away with doing anything other than a full week of events fundraising started in earnest.  Some of the fundraising events which were organised were probably inappropriate as a means of raising funds for a children’s festival but we needed the money.  One which sticks in my mind is when a number of the committee donned fancy dress costumes and toured the pubs with collecting tins.  Jimmy was dressed as a Panda which unfortunately, presumably he couldn’t manage zips round the back, he had put on back to front which of course meant that the Panda’s tail was in a very strange position but Jimmy always claimed that this was deliberate and considerably increased the funds he raised.

Not satisfied with the panic of arranging the fair in such a short timescale Jimmy suggested that we should close the High Street for the whole of Fair Day and not just the crowning.  I think a number of people were surprised when this request was granted as it still is today.  The first fair also saw the introduction of an event invented by Jimmy, the Bellstane Walk.

Over the year’s Jimmy became quizmaster at the regular Ferry Fair Quizzes which at one time attracted some 17 teams and unlike most local quizzes also included charades which invariably caused some hilarity for everyone except the poor team member trying to mime some obscure book or film title.  He also became the promoter of many concerts featuring internationally known stars of Scottish music and comedy such as Gaberlunzie, Tich Frier, The MacCalamans, Alex “Happy” Howden and Bill Barclay.  The vast majority of these concerts were held to raise funds for the fair.

Another memorable Jimmy event had to be The Ferry Play in 1990 when a scene was “added” at the bottom of McIver’s Brae involving a peaceful Scottish family and some barbarous redcoats.  Needless to say the redcoats always got their comeuppance and the victorious Scots extracted a toll from the play’s audience to guarantee their safe passage to the next “official” scene.  There was even a suggestion that the whole escapade should be repeated at Carter Bar charging tourists to enter Scotland, not sure we would have got away with that one though.

Jimmy and myself would have been involved in 13 Ferry Fairs, this year’s would have been the fourteenth, and throughout that time Jimmy could always be relied on to keep everyone right.  Not necessarily by what he said but also by the way he looked or grunted, his views would be crystal clear.