The Gamekeeper's Son

It has been brought to my attention that not everyone knows what a gamekeeper really is, in fact, while going over some thoughts on the subject before I started writing, I now realize how complex and difficult this task is going to be.

He is hired by the Laird, the owner of an estate, to protect all the game from predators and poachers (people who take game illegally). An estate may consist of hundreds of square miles and a few dozen farms also owned by the laird and leased to individual farmers. In the case of very large estates such as this, it would be necessary for him to hire as many as six gamekeepers each with his own section, or beat, to look after. In addition to a small wage, he would also have the use of a house owned by the estate with firewood, coal, milk, and oatmeal included, for as long as he remained in the employment of the laird.

A gamekeepers day would start at daybreak and end at dusk seven days a week, but he did have some time to himself during the day when all his work was taken care of. When he was not out setting or checking his traps or snares for rabbits, he would be in his workshop repairing them. He had to maintain about forty traps and twice as many snares. He made all the snares from scratch, including the wooden pegs. He made all his bolt nets too. These were about three feet square with a drawstring woven in and out round the perimeter to which was attached a peg. He usually made them in the long winter evenings, sitting by the fire and listening to the radio.

He was also required to protect the nests of game birds, such as partridge, pheasant, and grouse from predators, the worst offender being the hooded crow, a very wily bird that would nest in the tall pine trees. The gamekeeper would build a hide close to the nest and sit and wait sometimes for hours until the crow returned and he could shoot it. Weasels and badgers also created havoc on the birds nests and had to be controlled too.

Poachers were always a problem. When he would find some strange traps or snares on his rounds, he would leave them intact and find a secluded spot nearby and wait until the poacher returned and apprehend him. His traps would be confiscated and sent on his way with a swift kick on the posterior and the threat of death should he ever be caught there again. The police were seldom involved.

The gamekeeper was well respected in the community and was classed with the doctor, minister, schoolteacher, and policeman and was regarded as one of the main sources of information in rural areas since there were no telephones and few folks had radio. We had a radio (a Christmas gift from the laird), so he was much sought after for information regarding the progress of the war with the Germans.
Anyone could depend on him for comfort or advice in any situation, and he was always a willing giver.

Ron was born in 1934 in Aberdeenshire Scotland, the son of a gamekeeper. He has three brothers and three sisters. He served a five-year apprenticeship as a carpenter before serving two years national service in the Royal Engineers. Married Ann Lambert in 1959. They have three daughters. Immigrated to the United States in 1968 to become a self-employed building contractor. Ann had her own kilt-making business and became renowned as one of the best. He had played the fiddle most of his life and competed to win the Northeastern United States Scottish fiddle champion in 1996. He enjoyed reading the works of Robert Burns, mostly because it was written in his native tongue and could understand the geneous and philosophy in his writings. He has performed the “Address to the Haggis” and “The Immortal Memory” many times and entertained with other Burns poems and Scottish stories in verse.