(in video, text and pictures. donations can be made via my fundraising page)

In the early 1950s Peter Laird was an out of school worker at Albion Motors in Glasgow and went for an experience that today we might describe as teambuilding. His company sent him to Brathay Hall, Brathay Trust on Lake Windermere at Ambleside.

On the course Peter proved himself to be a doughty and articulate leader, determined to get the best of the various outdoor challenges set for him by Brathay. If Peter’s team failed a mission, they tried again.

 

His return back to Albion proved not to be the end of his outdoors adventures. Brathay, seeking a course graduate to prove the value of their outdoor experience, chose Peter to go along with a group of more qualified – and more privileged – experts to scientific expeditions first to Norway, and then to somewhere completely off the regular tourist map – to Iceland. A team of 12 travelled for a group scientific survey to be housed in tents, and provided for by travelling with expedition food.  In 1953, Iceland was quite the culture shock. In one of the video clips Peter is explaining the shock of the guard on the Glasgow trolleybus as she shouted her passenger’s eventual destination to the rest of the carriage.

In relating this incredible experience Peter referred several times to how Brathay had changed his outlook, prospects and life and how others her had worked with in the Lake Windermere team had come from such urban and industrialised backgrounds that they had barely seen the outdoors. They were, he vouched, transformed by the experience.

Whilst Iceland may not be typical, ife transformative experiences are the ones that Brathay has grown to specialise in, providing life changing experiences with outcomes for disadvantaged young people.

The Iceland expedition was some 72 years ago and Peter’s documentation off it still has pride of place in his living room. That’s Peter, bare-chested in the photograph soon after sorting out an issue with a crevasse on the glacier. The life he has since lived has been full of outdoor vigour, his current good health and wellbeing not without coincidence.

Peter supported my Big Tour of England. He was delighted to hear that the Trust was still functioning and serving young people, transforming lives, and you may argue generations of lives. Sitting next to us was daughter Liz who combats fibromyalgia by running, swimming and cycling. She completed her 100^th marathon last year, and is an energized globetrotter combining her travels with endurance sport.  She, like Peter has been, is an inspiration to many.

Peter’s good health has seen him outlive Albion Motors, the famous Glasgow car and coach builders that went through various tansformations of ownership before closing its doors for the final time last year.