It’s in the post:
James has subscribed to The Orcadian since before WWII
by Ian Johnston
(From The Orcadian dated January 18, 2001)

How many people can say that they have held a subscription with The Orcadian for well over half a century – in fact before the start of World War Two?

At least one man can. He is 89-year-old James Groat of Bogfoot, Southwick, in Dumfries, who has just renewed his latest subscription to The Orcadian after taking out his first subscription in January, 1938.

Mr Groat, who is originally from Orkney, has had The Orcadian delivered to him wherever he has been throughout Britain for the past 63 years, with the cost of ‘the paper’ progressing from ‘a few shillings’ (twopence per issue) to the current 54p per week.

“When I was first getting The Orcadian delivered to me it didn’t really cost that much, but when you take into account the price change in the paper over all those years and the cost of posting it around Scotland, you must expect to pay a fair bit of money. It’s worth it though, so I can keep up to date with what’s been happening in Orkney,” explained Mr Groat.

Born in Copinsay in April 1912, Mr Groat left the island in 1929, aged 17, to work at sea, before returning to Orkney eight years later after he decided that working at sea was a good experience at first, but became fairly repetitive after a while.

When he returned to Orkney he met Eday woman Ann Benston, whom he married on her home island one year later in 1938. The pair were to be happily married for a further 55 years, up to her death in 1993, and had three children – one son, Fraser, who currently living in London, and two daughters, Diana and Jean, who both reside in Dumfries. Mr Groat also has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“People often tell me that I have quite a large family,” said Mr Groat. “But they soon change their opinion when I tell them I come from a family consisting of eight brothers, including myself, and six sisters. One of the largest families in Orkney’s history I’m often told, although only four of my brothers and sisters are still on the islands.”

Mr Groat worked as a lighthouse keeper at Barra Head, the most Southerly point in the Outer Hebrides (or as he described it “many miles from nowhere.”), from 1938 until 1950, after which he and his wife moved to Coldingham in Berwickshire, where he fulfilled his ambition of owning a small working farm until around mid-1958.

“We were in Berwickshire for about eight years and we had a man staying with us for a couple of weeks who told me that there was a farm in Dumfries that I might be interested in. We were delighted to hear this news and even more delighted when we were told that we had got the farm.

“It was late 1958 when we moved to Dumfries. I worked away on the farm and my wife cooked for us and took good care of the house. I certainly have no regrets towards moving to Dumfries. We both enjoyed it very much.”

Mr Groat, who still lives in Dumfries, returns to Orkney every year to spend a long spell of the summer in the small cottage he owns in Deerness.

“I enjoy coming back up to Orkney once every year,” said Mr Groat. “I don’t have many friends left in Orkney as most of them have either moved away or died, but my neighbour in Deerness is 99 years old, so it gives me someone in my own age group to speak to. It also means I can say that I’m not the oldest man in Deerness when I’m there. I enjoy returning to Orkney though, especially when I notice that a few things have changed since I was last up. I remember seeing The Pickaquoy Centre for the first time and thought it looked very hi-tech and modern, although I must admit I thought it was a shame that they got rid of the play park at Picky as it was always nice to see the children playing outdoors.”

Change is certainly one thing that Mr Groat is familiar with when it comes to Orkney, both with The Orcadian and the county itself.

“The paper has certainly come a long way since I started reading it,” explained Mr Groat. “When I first began subscribing in 1938, The Orcadian was two or three large sheets of paper crammed with lots of advertisements for all sorts of products and companies and of course brief stories of what had been happening in Orkney – and it only cost a few shillings in those days.

“Now it is smaller in size, but the content is a lot more detailed and I think it has a large range of stories to suit different age groups of readers. I especially enjoy reading the “From Our Files” section, which picks out the stories in the papers from that week, five, 25, 50 and 100 years ago, to see if I can remember hearing about that happening or not.”

Commenting on the many changes he has seen throughout the county itself during his annual visits, Mr Groat said: “Since I left Orkney with my wife around 70 years ago, I think Kirkwall itself has increased about two or three times in size, which is actually quite hard to believe.

“Obviously I notice other small changes like new shops being converted and built as well as improvements to buildings and streets that I may have forgotten about when I read it in The Orcadian.

“I’ve also noticed a few major changes such as improvements to Bridge Street, as it was quite badly broken and bashed for a long time, then when I returned the next year I was surprised to see it had been fixed up and I didn’t even know about it.”

Mr Groat has been renewing his subscription approximately every six months for the past 63 years, meaning he has renewed his subscription to The Orcadian over 120 times.

Commenting on this statistic, Mr Groat said: “It’s hard to believe that I’ve had my subscription renewed so many times. I’ll certainly carry on getting The Orcadian though as I’m always interested to know what’s been going on in Orkney since I was last there.”