1 September 2019 News/Editorial
No fishing news today, we can catch up with any and all of that next week.
For the moment, just this tribute to a great friend of the Tweed who has left us. He was one of the six founders of Tweedbeats, amongst the most insistent that the Tweed should have its own bespoke website for owners, independent of any letting agents.
What is written below cannot possibly do him justice, but I hope he will forgive us for that.
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Guy Innes Ker, 10th Duke of Roxburghe, died on 29th August 2019 at the age of 64 after the recurrence of the cancer which he fought and bore with great courage, fortitude and determination.
It is a massive blow to his devoted family, his wife Virginia (“Virge”) and his five children who he adored, and to his close friends, to all those working at Floors Castle and the wider Roxburghe Estates, and to his acquaintances and colleagues in the many walks of life in which he took an interest.
He was a Corinthian figure, a supremely talented sportsman as any of those who have played him at golf, tennis or cricket will attest. He loved his racing and his Stud at Floors, which has become so successful under his guidance and control, especially following the stellar racing career of one of its progeny, Attraction, the first racehorse to win both the 1,000 Guineas and the Irish 1,000 Guineas.
He turned Roxburghe Estates into a large thriving commercial enterprise, much press attention being given of late to his wind farm at Fallago Rig in the Lammermuirs, whilst too few recognise the £240,000 annual grants given to local Scottish Borders charities and other local good causes by the fund set up specifically by him and the wind farm company.
He loved the Scottish Borders and spent as much time there as he could, and, with Virge, has made Floors into the special place it is to visit today.
He loved all fieldsports, especially shooting and fishing, the latter mainly practiced on his incomparably beautiful two River Tweed salmon beats, Upper Floors in particular, perfect fly water and he was scathing of any who would dare to fish with anything other than a fly. He once caught 12 salmon in a November day at Upper Floors, and on his annual July pilgrimages to the Alta in Norway he caught two salmon over 50lbs, and many others over 30 and 40lbs.
Because he never became Chairman of the River Tweed Commission (RTC), the Tweed’s river board, his role as a river manager has been largely unrecognised publicly. He was passionate about the Tweed and its salmon and, despite having several opportunities to take the helm, he chose never to put himself forward as Chairman in case he, for such is a Duke’s lot, became the story rather than the river itself. He served for nearly 40 years as a Tweed Commissioner, most of that time also on the Chairman’s advisory committee, and had been a trustee of the Tweed Foundation, the Tweed’s charitable research arm, since inception in the early 1980s.
Over all those years, the Tweed has accomplished much, renowned for its enlightened management practices. The consistent theme whenever there were crises, be they the attempted Government abolition of the RTC in the Wild Fisheries Review, in-river and high seas netting reductions, out of control poaching in the 1980s, and many more, the seven Tweed Chairmen and four chief executives over that 40 years would customarily request meetings at the Floors estate office, because they all knew that in order to get anything through, it had to have Guy’s approval. His consistent advice and support to all his Tweed colleagues has been beyond measuring.
He told the story of an evening fishing on his beloved Upper Floors, determined to catch and kill a good big salmon for his freezer and to smoke. He duly landed a perfect sea liced cock fish of 15 lbs, was about to despatch it, when he took one last look into its eyes, said “Oh b.....r it” and quietly slid it back into the water, unharmed.
His campaigning zeal in protecting the Atlantic salmon had shown itself again, in his last few months, on the Alta, where netting still kills too many of this unique breed of exceptionally large fish. He would bridle at pictures of dead 50, 60 and even 70lb salmon lying in the bottom of a netsman’s boat. Even more ire, as recently as July this year, was directed at a rod fisherman who not only killed a 50lb Alta salmon but published pictures of it. Guy described it “a disgrace” that a rod fisherman should kill, and glory in the demise of, such a magnificent creature. It is early days, but with his support and encouragement, some further conservation of these magnificent fish, by curtailing traditional netting rights, has begun.
A great man and friend to so many, a sportsman and businessman, his perfect day might be, after the customary stint in his estate office, a few holes of golf at the beautiful course he created, the Roxburghe, or at Muirfield, followed by watching some recorded racing on TV, dinner with his family, and then a gentle late evening’s fishing, preferably always with a floating line and small fly, at Upper Floors.
He had a good life, if too short by some 20 years. He bore that huge misfortune in his last days, as those who know him well would expect, with both humbling and amazing grace.
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