A resident of the Perthshire since 1949, John was initially a teacher at Blairgowrie High School then became a local businessman with his own market garden and retail shop. Always active in the local community and its politics, he became an SNP councillor in 1977. This marked the start of a hectic period in public life that saw him take on a number of key offices and contribute substantially to the community.

A man of seemingly inexhaustible energy, his council work required him to travel over almost every inch of Perthshire. This only increased his interest in the history of the area. In the mid 80's he came up with the idea of documenting some of the stories in a 'diary', each day describing an event that happened related to that day in some year of Perthshire's history. Over the next 12 years, he wrote, collected, compiled and summarised historical tales from all over Perthshire.

John died in 1998, before the diary could be published. It is hoped that one day the Diary stories will be published in book form. Until then, please enjoy the chronicles of his beloved Perthshire from this web site.

A plaque in John's memory has been erected on the triangulation point at the summit of Ben Vrachie, the 2700ft mountain near Pitlochry. The improvement and maintainance of the 6 mile hill walking track was one of his favourite projects.