May The Fire Be Always Lit: A Biography Of Jock Nimlin

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Jock Nimlin is best known as a pioneering Scottish climber of the 1920s and 1930s who made many first ascents on The Cobbler and neighbouring hills, some of these ascended solo. Among other achievements, he led the first ascent of Raven’s Gully on Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glen Coe.

He was a legend among the working-class fraternity in those years, remarkable for his climbing ability and route-finding skills, for his courage and physical toughness, for his extensive knowledge of the Scottish Highlands, and for his commitment to the outdoor life. He possessed an innate talent as a communicator, both in the spoken and the written word, and was a seminal figure in Scottish mountaineering.

After a period of unemployment during the Depression of the early 1930s, Jock became a crane-driver with Harland and Wolff in their Clydeside shipyard where he worked for 30 years before becoming the first field officer with the National Trust for Scotland in 1963 in which role he was instrumental in extending the work of the Trust and increasing its membership. His work with the Trust included leading work parties to St Kilda. He remained with the Trust until his retirement in 1980.

Always a keen observer of the natural world, he developed a passion for locating sources of semi-precious stones, particularly agates, and he became a leading authority on the subject. As a hobby, he produced many beautifully polished and cut stones. In retirement, he was able to indulge in his passion for gardening. He died in 1988 at the age of 79.

He was a life-long socialist with a deep sense of social justice. His father died when Jock was only ten years old and poverty was a close companion during his childhood and early manhood. He grew up under the influence of the Red Clydesiders and the Independent Labour Party, but he never became politically embittered, always retaining his dry Glaswegian sense of humour and a balanced outlook on life.

Jock left for posterity a treasure trove of his writings in the form of notes, articles and scripts of his radio and television broadcasts, about 100,000 words in total. In so far as possible, these form the basis of the biography: it is told largely in his own words.

The biography, which is as much a social history as a story of the Scottish mountains, was published under the same title in 1995 by The Ernest Press and has long been out of print. The opportunity is now being taken to republish it with amendments as an ebook to make it available to a new and wider audience. This edition has an appendix of articles and essays by Jock that did not feature in the earlier book and contains a significant number of additional photographs.

'May The Fire Be Always Lit' is a grand story of a grand man.