Bernard Hames, Durness

RETIRED police sergeant Adam Bernard Hames, always known to friends and family as Bernard, died in the Cambusavie Unit, Golspie, on July 27th, after a short illness. He was 84.

Adam Bernard Morley Hames was born in Thurso on February 23rd 1931, the only child of William and Christina Hames.

He grew up in the Old Manse, Durness, just outside the church where his grandfather on his mother’s side, the very eminent and learned Rev Adam Gunn, had been the parish minister for many years, and where Bernard’s funeral service took place on Saturday, August 1st.

Though it spanned the World War II, Bernard’s was a happy childhood, and as a young lad he was fascinated by the soldiers in Army camps that were set up next to the church.

In fact it was always a source of great disappointment to Bernard that he was too young to join the Army when war broke out in 1939, which may explain why throughout his adult life he became a keen student of war and military history.

Bernard went to school in Durness until he was 11, when he transferred to the big school in Golspie.

When he completed his education, he did his two years’ National Service in Aldershot and Farnborough before returning to Durness where he undertook various jobs including working as a forester at Achfary estate and beyond.

In May 1956, at a village dance in Melness, Bernard met his future wife, Mary Mackay from Melvich, who at that time was working as a cook at the Cape Wrath Hotel, just outside Durness.

They were married two years later by which time Bernard had joined the police service in Sutherland.

His police career spanned 30 years and during those decades he was stationed at Lairg, Golspie, Dornoch, Melvich and finally Thurso.

When he retired in 1987, Sergeant Hames, as he was then, was honoured by Chief Constable Donald Henderson who presented him with a roll-top desk which Bernard treasured throughout his retired life.

On his retirement, Bernard had been looking forward to going back to Durness to help his wife Mary run the successful bed and breakfast business she had started in the Old Manse with their daughters Catherine and Kirsteen in previous summers.

Sadly their retirement plans together were cut short when Mary died at the age of just 53.

Eventually he decided to move away from the solitude of the Old Manse and moved to Golspie to be nearer Kirsteen and her husband Michael in Dornoch. About 10 years ago he moved to Stafford Court in Dornoch just round the corner from where Kirsteen and her family live.

However, after a long and mainly happy retirement, Bernard was diagnosed with lung cancer in February of this year and although medical staff at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, where he was treated, thought he might survive for at least another year, Bernard died only five months later in the Cambusavie Unit, surrounded by his children Catherine, William and Kirsteen.

Bernard will be sadly missed by them as well as his four grandchildren Rosie, Sally, Adam and Robbie, and his many friends throughout Sutherland and the north of Scotland.

The funeral service was conducted

by the Rev John Mann and a eulogy was given by his son-in-law Ian McKerron who spoke of Bernard’s talent as a writer and wordsmith – a few years ago he wrote a long and detailed article about Durness during the war for the Northern Times.

Bernard was also a lover of poetry, especially that of the Scots-educated Canadian poet Robert Service.

He was a dedicated supporter of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and a keen watcher of, and listener to, Test cricket.

I M.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.