Labour candidate's delight at discovering Dounreay family link
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Finding out about a famous relative who played a key role at Dounreay in the 1950s has become a labour of love for Marion Donaldson.
The Labour candidate for the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat at next month's Scottish Parliament election is delighted with the discovery and hopes to find out more about Donald Carmichael, who was the first administrative officer for the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Dounreay. He played a major part in getting the experimental nuclear station established here almost 70 years ago.
Ms Donaldson, who comes from Skye and is a former Edinburgh councillor, is campaigning to be the far north's next MSP but is also keen to learn more about her distinguished relative.
"I knew I had a family link via my great-grandmother to the village of Reay prior to selection but it was only about three weeks ago I found out about Donald," she said.
"A significant proportion of residents I speak to in Caithness, Sutherland and Ross recall him and I am really keen to know more so I’m having a dig around to see what I can find. Donald was my great-grandmother’s sister's son. His father was a minister and Donald grew up in the Reay Church of Scotland manse.
"Like many do, he headed off to study. He became involved in the UK Atomic Energy Authority before returning to Caithness to become a founding member of the research team that created the site.
"Most of the land needed was already government-owned, having been a wartime airfield, but I’m told it was Donald who negotiated with the local farmer to buy additional land for Dounreay, and from what I can gather they weren’t keen on selling – but Donald, being a local boy, was able to bridge that gap. I was speaking to a Caithness woman on the phone the other day and she talked about him being the bridge that led to the building of Dounreay."
Ms Donaldson, who has returned to her native Skye along with her partner Brian after living in the central belt, described her connection to Donald Carmichael as "inspiring". But she explained it was another relative, her grandmother Margaret – a Labour councillor in Skye in the 1940s – who influenced her to go into politics.
Ms Donaldson, a 57-year-old mother-of-three, left her island home to study pharmacy at Strathclyde University. She was twice elected as a City of Edinburgh councillor and for a time held the key coalition responsibility for leading cross-party discussions to agree the capital's £1.3 billion public service budget.
She and Brian, a renewables business development consultant, relocated to Skye last year and could not be happier about the move.
"We actually came back with the children for four years at one point and it was wonderful."
Ms Donaldson added: "It feels a bit like you go away and you learn about another culture and then you come back, and you bring that back with you. That’s what Donald did. He went away, and he brought something back, the studying and the learning – he brought all that back to his own village, and he brought prosperity. What a delight to know that I have quite a close family connection.
"He died in 1996. I only wish I'd had the chance to have sat down with him and hear his stories first-hand."
Mr Carmichael was initially seconded by the Ministry of Works to pave the way for the setting up of the experimental fast reactor nuclear facility in 1954. He spent months commuting between the authority's establishment at Risley, Cheshire, and Caithness, sorting out property, legal and other issues.
In 1956, he was appointed as works secretary by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and two years later became Dounreay's general secretary, the most senior administrator at the establishment – a position he held until he took early retirement in 1970.
As well as organising construction work on the site, Mr Carmichael played a key role in overseeing the building of 800 houses and various leisure facilities in Thurso and contributed to the expansion of the Caithness economy to cope with the new industry which employed 2500 people, many of whom came from all over the UK.
Ms Donaldson is keen to hear from anyone who has more information about her relative and his family.
