THANK you, Mary McCabe (Jul 19), for respectfully encapsulating Hamish MacQueen, a super SNP activist, and doing justice to his 93 years. He passed away peacefully in a coma, as a result of a fall, and we should be thankful he did not see or hear the results of the General Election the day before.

Among other things, Hamish was a member of the 1320 Society, who used as a slogan: “As long as 100 of us remain alive, we will not yield to the domination of the English”. We often wondered where the other 98 were. Hamish was no Scottish surrenderer porridge monkey.

I first met Hamish in the early 1960s when I joined the SNP’s Maryhill branch. Hamish was everywhere, setting a unique example of non-stop campaigning against all the odds. He remained single and was totally married to the SNP and the cause. He never seemed to change throughout the years. I used to say that about his black suit and white shirt and he took it in good part.

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I do remember working at all hours, looking out of the top of the bus, or tram window, coming or going to work, and Hamish seemed to be coming in and out of closes everywhere with bundles of leaflets. Gordon Wilson and his wife Edith were branch members whilst attending Glasgow University. I remember them shouting “firebrands” as they passed by us, sticking posters up all over the place.

Before my time, Hamish was caught at three in the morning in Maryhill Road with a hammer and chisel, knocking the “II” out of EIIR pillar boxes. This was in the days of blowing up pillar boxes before Lizzie’s coronation. I have been told that there is still just one somewhere in Scotland. Thankfully Hamish never found it.

He did get his revenge on the old GPO building in George Square. The SNP were never mentioned in the media and one little stunt there generated a short article on the front page of the Evening Times: “Militant Scottish Nationalists attack George Square Post Office”. Hardly Dublin in 1916. The SNP staged a protest against a Post Office stamp issue commemorating the 700th anniversary of Simon de Montford’s Parliament. At that time there were no Scottish commemorative stamps and we produced our own, to stick on all envelopes, as well as a rubber stamp of the Wallace Abbey Craig Monument, encircled with “Home Rule for Scotland”, which we also stamped on ten shilling and pound notes.

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The plan was to poster every Post Office in Glasgow with “Why buy stamps for England’s independence?” at midnight and stick superglue in all the locks. I was assigned to the Post Office in Candleriggs, around the corner. We had large adhesive posters and carried a lemonade bottle of water and sponge to wet them. As I came round the side of the building where the Post Office vans left, I decided to stick them over the EIIR signs on the sides of the vans and could hear loud cheers as the vans passed the SNP crowd around the corner.

Hamish was assigned to hammering a Proclamation of Independence on the Post Office Main door. The polis refused to arrest him, dragging him down the short steps, and he kept going back again and again. I managed to stage another wee diversion by sticking posters on the backside of the Queen Vic’s horse and other offensive statues.

I could fill the paper with such anecdotes of Oor Hamish’s less “legal” activities – they cannae touch him for it noo.

Scotland needs such legendary figures, even if they are caricatured and hauf of the myths are true. Hamish will be cremated in the Maryhill Crematorium this Friday at 2.15pm and then there will be a purvey in Maryhill Social Club in Lochburn Street, facing Garbraid Avenue, off Maryhill Road. When will we see his likes again?

Donald Anderson
Glasgow