Celebrating Georges

Short of the Shetlands, Caithness in Scotland is about as far as you can get from rural Southland and still be speaking English. It is the most northerly constituency on the British mainland, at the north-eastern corner of Scotland, within the general area of the Highlands. It’s a beautiful region, frequently reminiscent of the South Island for those who know both. Indeed, the further north one travels into the Highlands, the more like home it becomes.

It is somewhat coincidental then that the bottom part of New Zealand was settled by Scots. Never in the history of human migration did people travel further to discover a land so close to home. It was from Caithness that George Begg’s family came to settle in South Otago in 1856. George was born in 1930 and decided early on that a life on the family farm was not for him, so he trained as a fitter and turner. Any chance that George would live the quiet life of an ordinary ‘southern man’ evaporated when he discovered motorbikes. Before long he was racing and was good