It’s the dream job for anyone who loves the Outer Hebrides.
Driving a mobile banking van around Lewis and Harris, rain, hail or shine.
Or most likely, gale.
Soaking in the scenery, ever-changing in the Atlantic light.
Visiting bank customers, who become like old friends after a while.
For 11 years, this was Stornoway man Ruaridh Murray’s life.
He’s just retired and looks back with fondness at those years.
Fortunately, he took lots of photos while he was on the road, some of which he’s generously sharing with us here.
For Ruaridh, it’s been about the scenery and the vehicles, yes — but every bit as much about the people he met on his rounds.
He thinks about one gentleman he got to know quite well, who died just a month before his 103rd birthday.
“He was such an interesting man. He was in the Seaforth Highlanders during the war.
“He and his three brothers joined the Seaforths, and one is still buried in France having died there just after D-Day.”
Most of Ruaridh’s customers would be classed as elderly, in their seventies upwards.
He said: “The oldest lady was just weeks from her 107th birthday when she passed away.
“You would definitely stop and spend time with people, it was an important part of the job and a very enjoyable part.”
Before he hit the road as RBS Stornoway’s mobile bank driver, Ruaridh worked off-shore for years.
In 2013, he decided to come home to Lewis permanently and started looking for work.
It wasn’t many months before he spotted a job ad in the Stornoway Gazette.
“It just said they were looking for a driver, I didn’t really know what it was,” Ruaridh says.
“I applied and got the job initially for six months because the current driver was in the TA and serving abroad.
“But he decided to stay with the Army and the job became mine permanently.”
Driving on island roads can be extremely challenging, as Ruaridh already knew.
But being of a mechanical bent, and a collector of vintage vehicles, nothing could put him off.
He said: “Once a month we had a very difficult drive on the Bays road on the rocky east side of Harris.
“On a bicycle you would love it but in a van that size it was very difficult, especially in winter.
“But it was fabulous, I loved it.”
Summoned by a yellow sign
Ruaridh would be on the look-out for a yellow sign with Mobile Bank written on it in a window.
He would pull in and look forward to seeing the customers as they came out to do their banking business.
Yes, a bank service right to your doorstep.
It was only that way on the islands of Lewis and Harris.
On the Uists and Benbecula, the bank vans wait at key points in the islands, and you go to them.
Over the years Ruaridh worked with many different tellers.
He remembers one named Maggie fondly.
She was on the day they were filmed for one of Paul Murton’s Grand Tours programmes.
“It was a fantastic day out with lots of fun and outtakes,” Ruaridh says.
Then there was Amy, who was the teller when they filmed another Paul Murton show about mobile vans.
“She would have been in her late teens and was a laugh a minute. Amy is now a Gaelic teacher in Glasgow.”
Dangerous and unpredictable weather
The unpredictable weather on the islands is always a factor you can’t ignore, and during his tour of duty in the bank van, Ruaridh had a few frightening journeys.
“You would leave Stornoway in calm weather with no gale warnings in place,” he said. “On two occasions we left with mild gusts forecast, but half way through the run we encountered a frightening change in the wind when the 30 to 45 mph very quickly became 70mph plus.
“This happened in Uig the first time and on the way to Harris the second time just before climbing Clisham.
“On our return from Harris we didn’t see many vehicles on the road but at the bottom of Clisham we passed a delivery van on its side, blown over by the strong wind. ”
On another occasion, the van got delayed for hours in the teeth of a storm in Balallan.
Rauaridh said: “It was a frightening experience and tragically there had been a fatal accident, but we were amazed to hear a chapping on the van window.
Roast beef to the rescue
“On opening it as much as I could there was a kind lady from Balallan who when she realised we had been there for many hours with nothing to eat, went home and sent her husband back to us with a plate of roast beef and all the trimmings each , that’s something I’ll never forget.
“I believe we weren’t the only ones that the good people of Ballalan looked after that night.”
Lewis and Harris mobile banking van was a world first
The RBS Stornoway mobile banking service was the first in the world, as far as Ruaridh’s aware.
Ruaridh said: “The very first time it went out was on November 5, 1946.
“I’ve got a thing about vintage vehicles and started looking into the early vans.
“I found two photos in a broom cupboard that even NatWest, who hold the archives now, didn’t have.”
Ruaridh’s fascination with old vehicles, and indeed every day items, started when he was at school in Laxdale, now more or less a suburb of Stornoway but in those days a distinct village.
He said: “We had to walk to school every day, no bus service for us then.
“Just before the school there was a small business that had a Fordson van delivering paraffin and heating oil out to the nearby villages.
“The owner also had a scrapyard and garage beside his house with old vans and cars going back to the 1930s.
“There were always Ford and Fordson vans getting broken up for spare parts.
“It was my school friend’s uncle that owned the scrapyard so on our way home we were allowed to play in the old vans.
“This was in the early 1960s and I’ve never forgotten it.”
Ruaridh’s first job after leaving school in 1974 was as an apprentice mechanic in Mitchell’s garage Stornoway.
From there, he bought his first old car.
He said: “It was a 1950s Ford Popular 103E that cost £6.00.
“In the early 1970s these cars were worth very little.
“Since then I’ve always had classic cars and vans to restore and enjoy driving.”
Ruaridh has had lots of vintage and classic cars over the years.
He said: “The oldest car I’ve owned was a 1929 Ford model A, and some years ago I imported a 1931 Ford Model A pickup from Las Vegas.
“It was found in Nevada and I bought it and took it all the way to Stornoway.”
At present Ruaridh owns a 1937 Standard Flying 9, a 1937 Ford 8 model Y 2 door car that’s still on the road, along with a 1937 Fordson 5cwt model Y van also on the road.
“This van is thought to be the last Model Y registered,” said Ruaridh. “I also have a 1935 Ford model Y 5cwt van for restoration.
“Commercial vehicles were changed from Ford to Fordson in October 1936 so I’m lucky to have one of each.
“I also collect all kinds of paperwork, brochures, etc plus special tools used up to the 1960s.”
One of Ruaridh’s most poignant finds came in the late 1980s.
“I found a 1933 Ford Model Y 2 door car in Plantation Road, Stornoway.
“It had a very sad story as the original owner had last used it in July 1944.
“As he was a business man he had petrol coupons, and apparently he took his 13 year old daughter to Rodel on the Isle of Harris for a day out where she tragically drowned.
“The car was never used by him after that and when it was found after he passed away it still had a July 1944 Daily Record on the back seat.
“This car is now in Lhanbryde near Elgin and is still in use.”
As well as tinkering with his collection, and perhaps scouting out some more vintage vehicles, Ruaridh has another huge collection to browse through for memories of his mobile bank driving days, hundreds of photographs taken while out on the road.
He said: “Luskentyre beach on Harris is always stunning on a good or a bad day. I think I’ve got a picture of it every week over the last seven years and no two photos are the same.
“One day you stop there and the water’s pitch black, the next week it’s light blue, green, three shades of grey and you can see the rocks through the water.”
So many memories for Ruaridh to look back on.
“I’ll miss it all,” he said.
Ruaridh’s daughter Maureen paid tribute to her modest father.
She said: “He’s very highly thought of by both his colleagues and the communities he’s served and I know he will be much missed by them.
“The lovely retirement gifts and good wishes he has received from customers are testament to this.”
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