Obituary: Colin Stuart Paterson CBE, soldier and shipping company managing director

Born: 29 July, 1932. Died: 14 April, 2013, in Helensburgh, aged 80
Colin Stuart Paterson CBEColin Stuart Paterson CBE
Colin Stuart Paterson CBE

COLIN Paterson, who has died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, was – from 1980 to 1997 – the politically astute, occasionally controversial managing director of Caledonian MacBrayne. He upgraded the company’s Highlands and Islands shipping fleet in the final decades of the 20th century and frequently stressed that efficient, economy-boosting ferries were dependent on improved rural roads and ports, including a new route from Oban to Mallaig.

Paterson was involved in controversy when the company introduced Sunday ferry services in some Hebridean island communities, where many people made it clear they didn’t want them.

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In 1989, the company succeeded in its plans in North Uist, but failed two years later at Tarbert, Harris, when the local churches and the vast majority of residents fiercely opposed the introduction of Sunday sailings.

It took a threatened blockade of the pier by Scalpay fishermen opposed to the Sunday sailings and the realisation by then Scottish Secretary Malcolm Rifkind that the government would have to send in the Royal Navy if it was determined to break the protest. In February 1991, the company had to make undignified retreat – and it would be 20 more years before Tarbert had Sunday sailings.

Paterson was an intelligent, efficient executive who managed, after some years of lull, to secure a succession of bigger and better ships for Caledonian MacBrayne, starting with the Isle of Arran, launched late in 1983 and the first major new vessel in four years. He also saw the conversion of services generally to end-loading – there were still half-a-dozen archaic hoist-loading routes when he took over – and all the vessels built under him were drive-through, roll-on, roll-offs.

There was some irritation though with the names he personally chose for the big ships. Very few of them were traditional and the “Isle of…” formula was criticised by many for being boring, while also giving the impression that a number of vessels were operating wildly off-station. For example, the Isle of Arran put in a good few years at Islay.

Paterson is credited with fighting off attempts to privatise Caledonian MacBrayne and has been commended for his political guile. This came to the fore during the building of the Skye Bridge, which was contracted out to a large US company, which was empowered to charge hefty tolls, and assured that Caledonian MacBrayne would not be allowed to continue with the ferry service in competition.

When the Conservative government minister Lord James Douglas-Hamilton approached Paterson later asking him why CalMac was not continuing to run ferries between Kyle and Kyleakin the ferry company chief, in understandable irritation, is said to have told him: “It’s because you forbade it.” This happened on a special sailing of the car ferry Isle of Lewis at the end of July in 1995 – a few days before it came into service between Ullapool and Stornoway.

A member of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Paterson was adamant that sea transport links to the islands were vital to the healthy growth of the communities they serve and he was circumspect about linking them to the mainland with road bridges.

He said the case for more road bridges should be carefully scrutinised because the economy of an island could actually be adversely affected by a bridge. He said: “When an island is no longer an island, its attractions alter in tourist terms – on the one hand, a road link may make it easier for the delivery of goods but on the other, the tourist, who would once stay for some days, may be content with a fast day-trip then straight home again.”

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Paterson said that every time the CalMac fleet had been improved – and he conducted a programme of £66 million of capital investment in his first ten years with the company – there had been an immediate growth in traffic, which in turn saw more visitors heading for the islands.

This was a policy he believed in and followed with simple requirements such as well-thought out programmes whereby buses and trains arrived to meet the ferries, which was important to people.

He was decorated CBE for his services to shipping at the age of 61 after 11 years service with Gourock-based CalMac, having joined from North Sea Ferries, based in Hull, where he was UK manager. He was a governor of Humberside College and chairman of the Maritime Advisory Committee there. He received an honorary fellowship of the Hull-based college before he left the area to work in Scotland.

When he retired 15 years ago, Paterson took on the lead role in the voluntary campaign group fighting to save the Maid of the Loch on Loch Lomond. Two years ago, when illness forced him to resign as chairman, he volunteered to continue to serve in the Maid’s souvenir shop and, although the old paddle steamer remained static and berthed at Balloch, it was at that time attracting 30,000 visitors a year to the Bonnie Banks.

He also oversaw much of the renovation of the Maid and the rebuilding of the Balloch Steam Slipway, which was officially opened by the Princess Royal.

Born in London in 1932, Paterson and his twin brother, Michael, were educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hampstead School, where the boys, both tall, strong and handsome, played rugby before Colin joined the Royal Artillery in 1950. He served with distinction as a signals officer with various regiments in Hong Kong and with the Royal Leicestershire Regiment in Korea.

He first married Margaret Petrie and is survived by his second wife, Marcella, and four children, Fiona, Catriona, Stuart and Andrew. He was an active member of the community in Helensburgh, where he was a governor of Lomond School and an elder of St Andrew’s Kirk, where his funeral service took place on 20 April.