Huntly writer's latest book tells the stories of life in the town during the Second World War
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
HUNTLY historian, Patrick Scott has added to his long list of publications with an insightful book which tells personal stories about World War II in Huntly.
Patrick, who is 83, was only three years old when the war broke out and has very few memories but had collected a mass of notes, people's memories and memorabilia over the decades which has gathered together into the book, Huntly's World War II.
Patrick recalled: "Every soldier had stories to tell and now at least some of them are recorded. I had all this information and during lockdown decided that it would give me a focus.
"I had gathered the information from all sorts of people and in different situations over a lot of years. When I played for Huntly Cricket Club, John McTavish, senior would tell me tales of times he spent in India.
"I got stories from relatives - my Uncle Bertie Gray was in the Home Guard, my own father was a dental mechanic in the army and my mum was worried he would get sent to France when he was called up - he only got sent to Keith and Bertie would joke that that was maybe more dangerous.
"Some men came home from the war and didn't want to speak about their experiences and others were happy to tell their families - these people have shared the stories from their relatives with me."
The book is broken into short chapters with touching stories of evacuees arriving off trains, descriptions of planes over Huntly, conscription, pillboxes, sirens and life for "bairns" during the war years.
Patrick has written at least a dozen books, including two volumes on Huntly Cricket Club, a History of Strathbogie which he is preparing to reprint and chronicles on local churchyards.
A maths teacher during his working life, he has self funded the printing of 500 copies of Huntly's Second World War which are on sale from Orb's Community Bookshop, Dean's and McColls.
