Hector McDermott had learned to fly in the Great War. Not that those were the skills his country had called on him to supply. No, Hector was actually in the Royal Flying Corp Number 1 Squadron – those were the people who went up in balloons and observed the action and movements below.
He had studied geography at Glasgow University and graduated just at the Great War got underway. It was his professor who had suggested perhaps putting his map reading skills to use, and this he did. During Hector’s spare time, he would be shown by his pals the rudiments of flying – it was in their own interests given how many pilots they went through in a year.
He had borrowed this marvellous plane from his great pal, Gunther. German, of course, but had come to Scotland in the 1890s, married an Edinburgh woman and had settled down in peace.
Hector’s plan was special. His mother, Edith had her birthday on January the 25th – the same day as Robbie Burns. Hector would swoop down and land in a field near Cramond where his mother lived, and then they would fly to Glasgow in time for a Burns’ Supper with his mother’s sister, who lived in the south of the city.
Earlier, on the morning of the 25th, Will McDuncan had been attempting to steal odds and sundries from any shop he could find unattended. So far, which was unusual for him, he had exactly nothing in his secret pockets to show for his troubles.
Later,McDuncan managed to pickpocket a shilling from a passing businessman and sat quaffing a beer at the Tollbooth Tavern. He also managed to steal three more ales before he was on his way.
It was then that it struck Will McDuncan; why aim low when you can aim high? And it was at that point he decided to rob the Edinburgh and Glasgow Linen Bank on the Royal Mile. He stole one more beer, placed a scarf across his crinkly face and entered the building.
Up in the skies, Hector had started his flight over Edinburgh, something his mother had always wished to see (her home city from the air) but had thought of little chance of it happening.
“Doesn’t the Castle look beautiful?” She shouted. “And there’s Princes Street. Can we go over the top, over the Mile?”
Hector thought he could do better than that, after all, there was no one to tell him otherwise, and he decided to fly the plane very low down the Royal Mile. Of course, it was dangerous, and perhaps he would possibly knock the top off of something, but hey, life was too short; an important fact that he had found out very easily in the Great War.
It was just as they were flying up the Royal Mile that his mother spotted a man running from the bank, pursued by some other gents.
“I think he’s robbing the bank, Hector.”
Hector’s mother reached into her bag and found two Haggises (Haggi?) from her bag and threw them one at a time at the man, later known as McDuncan. She missed with the first haggis but got him right on the head with the second.
“Great shot, mother”, shouted a proud Hector.
And with that Hector and his mother flew on to Glasgow, haggis-less but feeling that it had been a worthwhile day.
When McDuncan came around, he was carted off to the local jail. In his pocket were thirty ten-shilling notes.
Hector and his mother decided to celebrate Burns’ night and her birthday with fish and chips.
Although Hector’s mother was the real heroine of that day, Hector and the airplane went on to become the heroes of the Edinburgh skies, but I’ll leave those stories for another time.
Bobby stevenson 2019
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