Robert “Bobby” McNaughton c. 1962, Kilkerran Road, Campbeltown, with Davaar Island in the background. Photo courtesy of Bobby McNaughton.
Robert “Bobby” McNaughton was born at Craigard, Campbeltown on 28/10/45. Bobby served as an apprentice electrician at the Argyll Colliery from 1961- 1964 until he was sent to Glasgow for further education. He worked alongside the colleagues who appear on the employee list here
There was another apprentice electrician working there too, who was senior to Bobby and whose name was Andrew Hall. Andrew was the son of the senior electrician. Bobby also worked alongside apprentice engineers, David Livingstone (whom Bobby thinks moved to Livingston) and Alastair McLaughlan. The three young men did their training together in Dunfermline. Bobby was then 16/17 years old.
The NCB sent Bobby to Glasgow to complete his education whilst finishing his apprenticeship at Cardowan Colliery. When he qualified and completed his apprenticeship he left the industry and never practiced his trade. He then went on to work for Phillips Electrical as a Lighting Engineer but realised that this was not for him either. He joined Lewis’s in Argyle Street (now Debenhams), in Glasgow, as a temp. but ended up staying there. Lewis’s sent Bobby to Keble College, Oxford and he became Personnel Manager in the store, a job he thoroughly enjoyed.
Bobby’s Uncle David appears on the Argyll Colliery employee list (no. 8). He was a fireman. He passed away 31 years ago on New Years Day. He lost a leg in an accident in the mine, from which he never recovered.
Bobby, now retired in Blackpool, still recalls Miners’ Gala Days, “All the kids loaded into buses and taken up the west road to a field where fun, games, competitions and eating was the order of the day”.
Bobby McNaughton. Photo courtesy of Bobby McNaughton ©
The Road to Drumleman 