Former Forres papermill owner, intrepid man of the mountains and proud Scot, Jim Flemington has died aged 96.
Though he lived in England for many years, his life began and ended in Scotland, and his heart never really left Moray and the Highlands where he loved to roam the hills.
Forres raised
The eldest of three children, James Leslie Flemington – known as Jim – was born in Edinburgh on May 16 1927. The son of businessman James McPherson Flemington, and his wife Anne Leslie Ross, a nurse, it would be the Highlands not the capital that would capture the heart of James.
In 1939, Jim, aged 12, and his family moved to Forres when his father took over a sawmill known as the Bobbin Mill. The same year the war started, the firm found growing success in supplying pit-props for the coal industry and other wartime supplies.
From Tytler Street the family moved to The Knoll, on St Leonard’s Road when the business continued to do well.
Jim was educated first at Anderson’s Primary in Forres, then later at Edinburgh Academy.
Introduction to the hills
Forres was the perfect playground for a child with an adventurous spirit. Through school and also with the Scouts, regular outings to the Cairngorms fed his hunger for the mountains. Even as a 16-year-old volunteer in Forres Home Guard his time was split between a keen desire to help the war effort and a pull to the hills.
In 1944, aged 17, he joined the Royal Navy and trained as a radar plotter and apprentice electrical engineer. He served on four frigates and minesweepers, initially clearing mines around the Channel Islands.
Later, during a stint patrolling the Mediterranean, part of his tour of duty included the well-documented interventions of Jewish migrant ships heading for Palestine. He was trained as a ready member of a boarding party that came alongside the SS President Warefield – also known as Exodus 47 – carrying 4,500 refugees.
“The idea of jumping, at night, between two moving ships with little more than hope keeping you from falling in the sea seems inconceivable now,” said Simon, Jim’s son. “I found it strange how matter-of-fact he was about it all.”
Nazi war crimes trial
His naval service also provided Jim with the opportunity to witness history being made, on more than one occasion. In Italy he was asked to attend the Albert Kesselring war crimes trial in Venice.
The former Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall was tried before a British military court from February 17 to May 6 1947. He was charged with “being concerned in the killing as a reprisal of some 335 Italian nationals,” in the Ardeatine Caves.
He was subsequently permitted to attend the first session of the newly formed United Nations in London where he heard Eleanor Roosevelt speak.
Alpine success
On leaving the navy Jim graduated with an MA in economics from Edinburgh University.
“The story goes that his studies were really more of a nuisance, getting in the way of the more important business of rock climbing and mountaineering,” said Simon.
“He told me they would even practice rock climbing techniques up onto the battlement of Edinburgh Castle.”
In later life he’d progress to larger peaks including the Matterhorn in the Alps.
The 4.15 from Paddington
Jim met the love of his life when he rescued the straw hat of a young Lancashire nurse, which was about to be crushed by a suitcase. The gallant act paved the way for Christine Pare and Jim to chat all the way to Worcester. They never looked back.
They began courting – the later married in September 1957, in Salesbury Church, Blackburn.
At home in Forres
After their wedding, Christine joined Jim in Scotland; their first year in Findhorn, afterwards in a cottage in Forres.
The couple went on to have three children, Hamish, Simon and Douglas.
When he could, Jim again took to the hills, then with Moray Mountaineering Club.
In the mid 1960s Jim took his family south once more when he began working for international paper firm, Bowaters.
Settling in Neston, Cheshire family and work took precedence over climbing and hills.
Over the years Jim developed his life-long love of beekeeping and gained an Open University degree in information technology. He also ran the friends’ association of Liverpool University Botanic Gardens.
Scotland and his connection to Moray and the Highlands would never be far away, however. Through the Chester Caledonia Society or listening to Radio Scotland, Jim kept in tune with his roots.
Returning ‘home’
After 62 years together, Christine passed away in 2019. After a short time on his own Jim relocated to Findhorn to live with Simon and his grandchildren.
Until March this year Jim remained in good health but latterly “frailty of old age” got the better of him.
“The last three years have been a wonderful time for all of us to get to know him really well. His memory remained razor sharp until the end,” said Simon.
“He was able to tell us so many tales about Forres and the surrounding area. We were just so happy he was able to be with us in a place he loved so much.”
Jim died on Saturday July 29 at Cathay Nursing Home, Forres, aged 96.
At the celebration of his life it was said that James Leslie Flemington was “a dutiful husband in a long and loving marriage, a loving and proud father and grandfather. A true Highland laddie”.
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