Former printer was talented musician and footballer

A FORMER printer whose musical and sporting talents earned many fans across Moray has died, aged 78.

Richard ‘Binkie’ MacDonald was lead singer and musician with ceilidh band ‘The Sair Heidies’, and starred on the football field for Elgin City and a number of other Moray clubs.

His working career began at ‘The Northern Scot’, where he served his time as a printer before moving to another firm, Lossie Printers, where he became a partner in the business and worked for more than 30 years.

He played with ‘The Sair Heidies’ for around 20 years, including performances in the United States and Ireland, while his voice also proved a hit in local bothy ballad contests.

Fellow Moray musician Raymond Wood remembers becoming Mr MacDonald’s printing apprentice at ‘The Northern Scot’, starting a friendship which lasted for more than half a century.

“We knew each other through business and pleasure for an awful long time, and were very close pals,” Mr Wood said.

“But he knew so many people through his work, his football and his music.

“He had a very good voice but he could also play the guitar, the Irish drum (bhodran) and the spoons. He was a man of many talents.”

Born in Montreal, Canada, in 1933 and brought up in Elgin, he joined ‘The Scot’ after leaving school and remained there until 1968, when he joined Lossie Printers with Mr Wood, who had started the firm a few years earlier.

The pair became business partners until Mr MacDonald’s retirement in 1999, and were also band mates with ‘The Sair Heidies’, whose rousing Scottish ceilidh and folk music earned a strong following in the area.

The group’s long list of performances included a visit in the American city of St Petersburg to play at a Highland Games. Mr MacDonald also toured Ireland on several occasions, and became a regular at the Glasgow Marathon, where his band would lift runners’ spirits from the back of a Macallan whisky lorry parked halfway along the marathon route.

“But the places that Binkie really liked playing were the hometown halls, in front of the local crowds,” said Mr Wood.

“One of his favourite places to play was Dufftown.”

Mr Wood also recalled his colleague winning bothy ballad competitions, including one at Keith, when he beat some of the best singers in the North to the first prize.

Her carried on singing and playing until around 10 years ago, when he was forced to give up due to ill health.

On the football field he won league titles, first with New Elgin juniors and then Elgin City, later featuring for Rothes and Lossiemouth.

Mr MacDonald, who was predeceased by his wife Elsie, died at Abbeyvale nursing home, Elgin, on December 19, and his funeral took place last Friday.

He is survived by his son Gary, daughter-in-law Denese and grandson Christopher.