Born: 20 November, 1929, in Perth.
Died: 25 May, 2008, in Inverness, aged 78. AS THE man who brought the first ski shop and ski school to Aviemore, Sandy Caird was regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Scottish ski
industry, helping lure people away from the traditional slopes in the Alps.
He was deeply involved in the development of Aviemore, watching it grow in the 1970s and 1980s into a "mini-Gstaad", a magnet for royalty and celebrities from around the world before its decline in the 1990s, when he sold his business, Cairdsport.
At its height, Cairdsport had 35 full-time ski instructors and dozens of part-time ones and rented out hundreds of pairs of skis and boots a day. He was helped by his friend and co-director Derek Brightman, an accomplished Alpine skier. To ensure year-round employment for the staff, they set up a sailing school and outdoor activity centre on Loch Torlich, with yachts, canoes, bicycles and motorised bikes for hire, giving a big tourism boost to the area.
Caird had learned to ski as a schoolboy during the Second World War, taking the train from his native Perth, climbing Cairn Gorm long before there were ski lifts and making the descent on old-fashioned skis crudely attached to walking boots.
In later life he dedicated himself to furthering tourism in the Cairn Gorm area, serving the Cairngorm Mountain Trust, the Aviemore and Spey Valley Tourist Board, the Cairngorm Recreational Trust, the Badaguish Outdoor Centre in the Cairngorm National Park and the local Crossroads charity in support of care workers.
Alexander Whyte Caird was born in Perth to a family well-known in the area for the A Caird and Sons department stores (established 1879) in St Andrews, Perth and Dundee. He attended Perth Academy and the Dundee School of Economics before heading south as a trainee draper in the Man's Shop in Harrods' famous Knightsbridge store. Living in the bustling Earl's Court district, he spent his weekends rowing on the Thames, playing rugby for London Scottish or training with the Territorial Army. He did two years' national service with the Royal Artillery, serving in the UK and Austria, and had a spell with the Artists Rifles, part of the 21st Special Air Service (SAS) regiment, eventually retiring from the TA with the rank of major.
On his return to Scotland, Caird helped run the family stores, initially in St Andrews, later in Perth and Dundee. In the mid-1960s, foreseeing the decline of family stores, as well as the potential for winter sports in Scotland, he opened Cairdsport shops and ski schools at the Spittal of Glenshee and in the fledgling Aviemore Centre, the latter with £10,000 of his own money and a similar-sized loan. What he called a "diabolical" snowfall in 1971 brought skiers flocking to Aviemore, first from all over the UK, then from Europe, and later even from the United States. Press photos of a young Prince Charles skiing Cairn Gorm during weekend breaks from Gordonstoun, and of stars such as Omar Sharif and Shirley Bassey in local pubs, helped business to boom.
While living in Aviemore's Lynwilg Hotel, Caird fell in love with the receptionist, Susan, who became his second wife. The couple moved to Tulloch Moor, near Nethy Bridge, in 1971 and Caird spent the rest of his life in the same cottage there, becoming one of the best-known characters "in the strath" (Strathspey), renowned for his straight-talking. In the words of a friend, Scott Bruce, "people valued his advice, which was just as well, as he gave it frequently, and freely, without wasting time on diplomacy".
After selling up Cairdsport in 1994, he occupied himself with serving his various charities and trusts but found time to fish, golf at Carrbridge near his home, shoot grouse, sail through the Western Isles, walk the local hills for hours on end, guide visiting wildlife enthusiasts or tend to the fences and jumps of the showjumping rings as a volunteer at the Badenoch Riding Club. In a local newspaper article announcing his retirement, a friend said: "Sandy never courts popularity. But he often manages to attain it."
His widow, Sue, said: "Sandy was enthusiasm personified. He'd have a go at anything. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and, as a friend of his noted at the funeral in Abernethy, 'he didn't take oxygen, he only took gin'. In Scotland, he had every Ordnance Survey map there was. He'd walk the hills around here for five or six hours at a time."
Sandy Caird, who died in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, after a short illness, is survived by his second wife, Sue, their two daughters, Jo and Sarah, and a daughter from his first marriage, Lucy.
The full article contains 809 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
