William Brown, who farmed at Denwell, Midmar, has died aged 88.
For decades, William, known as Wullie, his wife Ethel and sometimes his son Wattie, were regular fixtures at the Friday sales at Thainstone.
When Ethel was no longer fit to attend, Wullie went alone and not even a broken leg could stop his weekly visits.
During his recovery, he recruited daughter-in-law Doreen Brown to drive him and these trips continued until the first lockdown.
That was when Wullie turned his hand to computers which he mastered to allow him to watch sales online.
Wullie was born at Craigenhigh, near Torphins, to farmer George Brown and his wife Flora.
He was the fifth of seven boys and was educated at Tornaveen primary and then Torphins secondary, although he much preferred working on the farm to school work.
Marriage
In 1957, he married Ethel, who lived on a nearby farm, at Kincardine O’ Neil Church, and went on to have three boys: Bill, who died in a farm accident in 2017, Gordon and Wattie.
When Wullie left school, he worked on the family farm before buying his own farm at Denwell, Midmar, in 1961, which was to be his family home for the rest of his days.
Doreen said: “His whole life has revolved around farming. The farm was always a buzz of activity and he never stopped, always tinkering away doing something.
“He did have one quite bad misfortune which resulted in him getting his leg stuck underneath a tractor box but, ever the optimist all he was interested in was telling us about what the wee hurl he got in a helicopter to ARI.
“He was well known in the area and almost everyone will have fond memories of him. He was quite the story and joke teller.
Current affairs
“He was also a fountain of knowledge on everything from farming to politics, and, regardless of his age he was bright as a button and always on the ball with what was going on in the world.”
As farming was such a big part of their lives, holidays were never something they had time for, however, when he semi-retired the family organised for Wullie and Ethel to go to Orkney with their granddaughter Zoe.