The west coast Gulliver

"I remember my mum and dad talking about Gulliver. I imagined a giant man being tied to the ground by tiny people from the books and film of Gulliver’s Travels.

"I realised he was a real person when my dad told me of a cousin, James Gulliver, who travelled home to Campbeltown and met with my dad for coffee and went for his tea at my Nanny’s house where she served him corned beef and cabbage.

"I remember my dad finding it very amusing, that my Nanny served corned beef and cabbage, to his cousin. I did not see why this was so funny until my dad explained that James Gulliver was a very successful businessman whose company Argyll Foods owned Safeway supermarkets.

"James Gulliver’s mother Mary Lafferty was a sister of my Papa Archie, which made James and my dad full cousins. James’s father who was a Grocer, built Glenramskil House on Kilkerran Road. James went to Campbeltown Grammar School then onto Glasgow University to study Maths and Engineering. In his career he returned to the family roots in Grocery, having been a delivery boy in his father’s Grocers’ shops in Main Street and Saddell Street, Campbeltown. I was to learn later that James Gulliver introduced techniques to retail management, which helped lay the ground rules for the supermarkets we see today.

"So, this is my account of Gulliver’s Travels from Campbeltown. There are many parts of James Gulliver’s life I have missed out but the part I remember was that my Nanny gave him corned beef and cabbage in her kitchen in Campbeltown. What’s more my dad used to say, with a smile, that he had to pay for the coffee every time they met."

James Gerald Gulliver, Businessman. Born Campbeltown, 17th August 1930. Died Edinburgh 12th September 1996.

As told by Kay Johnston

More information on visiting the area can be found here.