User:Aberdonian1903/sandbox/William Kelman Mackie

William Kelman Mackie new article content ...William Kelman Mackie, was born on 24th. May 1954, in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was brought up in his maternal Grand parents house. At the age of two he wondered away from the house that the family were moving out of. This was on the very day that they were moving to a new house, and the wrecking crew had started to demolish the entire building. He was found alone in then street, and the police came and took them to their H.Q.

Having being re-united with his family, he spent the next 8 years living with his grandparents, his mother and her sister. in 1963 they family moved to a house of their own. His mother, step-father and now a younger brother. Whilst he enjoyed school, his step-father was never one to encourage that he do well at school.

Royal Navy: At the age of 15, he joined the Royal Navy Boys Service, and was taken to H.M.S Ganges to do his basic training and finish his school work. An accident with his spectacles meant that he was unable to do most of the training, so rather than be back-squared, he decided to buy himself out of the Navy and return to full time education. This meant that he had to repeat 3rd year at Invergordon Academy. In 1971 his step-father bought a house in Stonehaven, and William continued his education at Mackie Academy (no family connection).

In 1971 after leaving school, he enlisted into the Royal Signals, Territorial Army in Aberdeen. In 1973, he decided to reenlist, but this time into the Army. After medicals and assessment tests, he left home to join the Royal Army Pay Corps, at their Depot at Worthy Down, near Winchester in Hampshire, England. His Army service saw him serving in Londonderry with 1st. Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (1973-73) Whilst with 1RRF, he became active with the local Boys Brigade Company opposite Ebbrington Barracks where he was based. He later decided to transfer into the Royal Military Police, and was sent from Londonderry to Chichester to train as a Military Policeman. That was a short lived idea as he was told that he would not make a good policeman as he had a conscience. So it was he returned to Worthy down. He was subsequently posted to West Germany, to 10th Regiment Royal Corps of Transport. He arrived in Bielefeld in September 1974, only to be posted a few months later to Munster to serve with the First Battalion the Scots Guards. He arrived in Munster on 1st. January 1975. Within a few months he was flying back out to Northern Ireland, this time on a 4 month tour in Belfast City Centre. Whilst here he once again became involved with the 29th. Boys Brigade Company in Townsend Street Church. Once back in Muster, he became a Sunday school teacher at the base church. When the Battalion moved in 1976 to Chelsea Barracks in London, he continued as a Sunday school Teacher, and also became involved with the 6th London Company Boys Brigade in Bayswater. In 1977 he was posted to the 1st. Battalion the Gordon Highlanders, who're on an 18 month tour of duty based at Palace Barracks just outside Belfast.