Sandy Gray: A Highlands Inspector Who Spotted the Loch Ness Monster Reminisces

[00:00:00] Sandy Gray: I would not have changed my career for the world. I met the good and the bad, the rich and the poor. Spoken to a number of celebrities and dignitaries, including Her Majesty the Queen

[00:00:28] Catherine: Hello there. I'm Catherine, your host of this variety show podcast. Your positive imprint is transforming how we live today for a more sustainable tomorrow through education and information. Your own positive actions inspire change. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram, your positive imprint. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Visit my website, your positive imprint.com and learn more about the podcast and sign up for email updates.

And thank you for listening on apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Pandora. Well. Your favorite podcast platform. Music by the legendary and talented Chris Nole check him out, ChrisNole.com c H R I S N O L E. Thank you again for listening and for your support of this podcast.

Your positive imprint. What's your PI

after walking two and a half miles to the grocery store, Mike and I decided to pamper ourselves and taxi it from Portree, Scotland on over to our camp where our comfy Highland camper van awaited us. And wow, as always, I love to learn about positive imprints everywhere. Our taxi driver, Absolutely interesting. Former Inspector Sandy Gray of the Isle of Skye, Portree, Scotland, is a former police officer with Police Scotland Highland and Islands.

Sandy is not only brave, courageous, understanding, but he possesses a brilliant sense of humor and a considerable number of positive imprints. Aside from being Portree's practical joker and taxi driver, he has a bit of family history. Well, his great uncle is responsible, with the help of the Aberdeen Press and Journal, to christen one of the most famous mysterious creatures on this planet with the name Loch Ness Monster, lovingly called Nessie.

Sandy has so much to share and I'm so excited to have him on the show. Sandy, welcome, welcome. It's so good to see you again.

[00:02:50] Sandy Gray: My pleasure to meet up with you again, Catherine. My pleasure.

[00:02:53] Catherine: Oh, there is so much to talk about regarding you and you're being featured here on Your Positive Imprint . And my gosh, you've been doing so much for so many people for decades. And we're going to share those along with, of course, your family, uh, gosh, that family history with the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie so close within your life and truly part of your soul, really.

[00:03:23] Sandy Gray: It is indeed, and I'm blessed to have been able to witness such an event back in . 1976.

[00:03:32] Catherine: Yeah, and we're going to get to that, but first I want to talk about Sandy Gray and who you are and why you chose law enforcement and where you come from

[00:03:44] Sandy Gray: I was born and brought up in Inverness, some 130 miles east of the Isle of Skye. I had no connection with Skye whatsoever or so I thought.

[00:03:53] Catherine: um,

[00:03:54] Sandy Gray: I went through primary and secondary education in Inverness and my first love was agriculture. I went to Agricultural College on the west coast of Scotland here, about 35 miles down the road from the Isle of Skye in fact, and the only certificates I've ever gained are certificates in crop husbandry, animal husbandry and farm machinery.

My The intention was to move on to college thereafter, another college thereafter, but my parents couldn't afford to send me to that college, so I went into mainstream work. I had a job in a shilling a week store. Working in a Jens Outfitters, and my thought was I'm going to join the police. So I went to apply and went to the Metropolitan Police in London.

Now I passed my exams, I passed my fitness test, but I failed my interview because they thought I was a young Highlands lad and I would not be fit into the London scene. So I came home sorely disappointed and was told that there was a vacancy as a police cadet in the Inverness Constabulary and I went down and I sat an exam as a young man there and I got in as a police cadet.

There was only two police cadets in At that time and I got one of the posts.

I was a cadette for thirteen months and I thereafter sought an exam to get into the force full as a constable and I joined the Inverness Constabulary in 1972 from there

off in Inverness. I was there posted thereafter, posted to Aviemore in the Cairngorm National Park.

And Aviemore was a ski resort, and still is a ski resort, but it was a focal point for wine, women, and song back in these days. And as a young man, I enjoyed the wine, women, and song, but my training sergeant thought I was enjoying it too much, so he sent me to Skye to cool my heels. came to Skye in 1973 and I met a local girl and there was nothing else to do so I married her and we thereafter moved and her first station was Fort Augustus at the south end of Loch Ness.

Thereafter, I was transferred to Traffic Department in the Cairngorm National Park. I then went to the Control Room and Headquarters, and I felt that I was missing a bit of the action, so I went into the CID, and most of my career was in the CID in Alness and Inverness, and thereafter I was promoted to Detective Sergeant in the Orkney Islands, where I was for five years. And there was a sideways move in 1989 and I was transferred to Fort William where I became a detective, still a detective sergeant for a number of years before being promoted to uniform inspector in the charge of Skyloch, Alston, and sub area which covered a thousand square miles before my retirement in 2003.

[00:07:08] Catherine: Okay. Um, Oh my gosh, you have served Scotland well.

[00:07:14] Sandy Gray: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would not have changed my career for the world. I met the good and the bad, the rich and the poor. And a number of, been introduced and spoken to a number of celebrities and dignitaries, including Her Majesty the Queen in 2002.

[00:07:33] Catherine: My goodness. So. I want to go back to your upbringing. You were raised in Inverness and was it, you obviously got into farming. Were you raised on a farm?

[00:07:48] Sandy Gray: No, but my, my ancestors, uh, were from Farniestock, and every weekend I used to go and visit. the farm and just help where I could as a young lad and it gave me the wish to be involved with, with farming. And when I did go to agricultural college, my wish was to become a salesman, for want of a better word, selling farm products, et cetera, et cetera.

But as I said, that didn't turn out and the truth be known, I'm quite happy it didn't turn out. Well,

[00:08:22] Catherine: it sounds like it, and your service, obviously, has been all over mostly Western Scotland.

[00:08:33] Sandy Gray: force that I joined initially was Inverness Constabulary,

which took in the western, the northwest coast of Scotland and the Cairngorm National Park and the Highlands. In 1975, our force amalgamated with two other forces to form Northern Constabulary. And that landmass itself covered one third UK.

It stretched from Glencoe in the south to the Shetland Islands in the north.

And your listeners may identify with Shetland with a famous television program called Shetland. And it also covered the Western Isles. The Western Isles is, uh, or the Outer Hebrides. We had 680 officers to cover that landmass. Um, so everybody seemed to know one another. Every officer seemed to know one another, whether they worked in the Shetland Islands or in Glencoe. And we used to get transferred

every five or six years, depending on our capabilities and where we wanted to move to

[00:09:38] Catherine: what's, what's the reasoning so you don't get burned out in one specific area? Uh,

[00:09:43] Sandy Gray: not necessarily if the thinking back in the day was that you didn't get too friendly with the locals. So therefore, there was you have to work without fear or favor. But that sort of went by the board and it was people's a motivation to progress in the service and diversify whether it was traffic or criminal investigation department or community, community involvement or drugs or whatever.

But I, from an early stage, I wanted to try my hand at everything, i. e. traffic, control room, criminal investigation department, et cetera, et cetera. So that If and when I became a supervisor or a senior officer, I at least had a knowledge of what others were dealing with.

[00:10:32] Sandy Gray: In Scotland in my day, no guns were ever carried by any police officer. Things have changed slightly since my retirement and there are firearms officers and armed response vehicles. Truth be known, the nearest armed response vehicle to here in Portree is 120 miles away. But, uh, no, if you could not talk somebody down, you had a 12 inch piece of hood called a baton.

That was your only defense and way of trying to deal with something back in the day. pepper spray or hazer or CS spray were non existent in my day.

[00:11:10] Catherine: Oh, my, and that was not even 20 years ago, so. Oh.

[00:11:15] Sandy Gray: 21 years on the 31st of March past.

[00:11:19] Catherine: That's right, because 2003 you said yes, and so do you have any stories to share from your service?

[00:11:29] Sandy Gray: stories that could be told, some that can't be told

[00:11:33] Catherine: Certainly.

[00:11:34] Sandy Gray: for obvious reasons, but I have some sad, some happy And stories, some that I'll keep to myself. Um, but one story in particular has a number of stories in particular, and it goes back to my days in the traffic department in, in the Cairngorm National Park.

My partner back in the day was a, a lovely female called Donna, Donna McIver and she was fastidious and everything that she did from her makeup to her uniform to her handwriting to her reports, absolutely first class. She and I were partners for about two years and this Friday night I was on at four o'clock in the afternoon till midnight and she was coming on from six till two.

At about five o'clock I received a telephone call saying there was a A road accident about 10 miles north of Canoesie, where we were stationed, and it required two police officers to attend, so I contacted Donna, and she ran around from where she stayed, just close by the office, and away we went to this road accident, and the road accident involved a stretched limousine.

and a car that had turned right in front of the stretch limousine bearing in mind we drive on the left in this part of the world. The offending vehicle was being driven by the registrar to the archbishop of Canterbury stretch limousine was being driven by a chauffeur so we alighted from the vehicle and subsequently found that the passengers of the stretch limousine were Sean Connery, Francesca Connery and Jason Connery.

Donna, being an attractive young lady, and Sean Connery being in his prime these days, asked if she could interview Sean Connery in the back of a stretch limousine. I said, no problem whatsoever. On you go. So I interviewed the chauffeur and Francesca Connery, while Donna interviewed Sean Connery and Jason Connery, who happened to be on, Sean Connery and Francesca Connery had gone to Gordonston private school to pick him up for the holiday, and hence the reason he was with them at that time.

So once we got done and dusted with the accident and everything was done and settled, Donna came to me nearly in tears. And I said, I says, what's wrong with you? Well, she says, prior to you calling me out, I had been dying a jersey black. Look at the color of my fingernails. What does Sean Connery think of me with my fingernails being black?

So, as I said, so that's an amusing I amusing story with Sean Connery. You know,

[00:14:19] Catherine: my gosh, that is, and he's of course gone now, but wow, what an experience and how humorous You must have thought that was what

[00:14:30] Sandy Gray: it's, it's lived with me. It's lived with me. If and when Donna and I meet, which is not as regular as I'd like to because of the distance between us, we always bring this up. But another coincidental story was just before I retired, a gentleman was found lying on a bed of black bin liners at the south end of the island.

And he was in a serious state of decomposition. Uh, my detective's officer dealt with it and we thought we'd have this gentleman identified within the week, which would be the norm. So he was sent over to the mortuary in Inverness where postmortem was carried out and no formal cause of death could be found. Uh, I went on television and did an appeal to press and radio. Uh, we had a mannequin with all the clothes that he was, had similar clothing to what he was wearing, or identical clothing, what he was wearing, and nothing came off it. Uh, we employed a forensic artist. We employed a forensic anthropologist and built up a picture of this gentleman and we circulated his description throughout the uk, and to the DNA basis in England and in Scotland.

to no avail. His fingers were so decomposed we couldn't get fingerprints. things went, we checked every missing person for 20 years, male and female. There was no scars, no tattoos. We could negate females, we could negate people with tattoos, and we were narrowing down in the field.

We circulated it to the dental journal in the UK. His dental records and the procurator fiscal who is the prosecutor or your equivalent to a DA asked me to have the remains interred about a year after the event. I asked him for one final radio interview or television interview and I did that in Inverness and on my way back my detective officer phoned me and said it looks as if we've got a hint. lady who's just come back from Greece who had reported her father missing some time ago thinks it could be him. So I asked that the young lady obtain her father's dental records, which were subsequently faxed through to me the following morning. I took the dental records through to the odontologist in Inverness at the hospital and he says 99.

9 percent this is your man. There seems to be one or two small discrepancies but I'm convinced this is your man. So the young lady came up the following day and we talked about her father, etc, etc. Now this, the deceased had been married twice.

The first marriage he had a son, the second marriage he had a daughter.

His second wife was Alexandra, known as Sandy. The deceased name was Gray.

[00:17:40] Catherine: Oh my gosh. Kevin.

[00:17:42] Sandy Gray: the son from the first marriage was called Kevin. What's my son's name? Kevin.

So anyway, we had the man's grave actually opened So that was all closed and procedures took place. We managed to bury him about a month later. When family came up from the south and I was speaking to his brother and I says, has he got any connection with Sky or Scotland at all?

Not really, he says, but our grandmother was a Ross, surname Ross. What was my grandmother's surname? Ross.

[00:18:17] Catherine: Oh, my gosh,

[00:18:19] Sandy Gray: But there was no connection whatsoever. His, his surname was G R E Y and my surname is G R A Y.

[00:18:27] Catherine: Mm hmm. Mm

[00:18:28] Sandy Gray: But it was a fitting, I felt that a fitting end, a fitting tribute. He, we managed to get this gentleman into a grave, a, a marked grave rather than an unmarked grave.

that was my swan song for want of a better word.

[00:18:43] Catherine: Yes, well, my gosh, uh, thank you so much for your persistence and certainly that gentleman's family is thankful for that persistence as well. So I, that was going to be one of my questions was if body was ever identified because it's, It was all over the internet. And you were on the internet and, uh, with that case.

And, but then I never read if there was any closure. Now I know what the closure is.

[00:19:14] Sandy Gray: I pass that graveyard every day when I go and pick. The children with special needs that I do so now, you know, I, uh, that's my, my part time employment. I, I take children with special needs to school in the morning, take them home again in the afternoon. And as I say, I pass that graveyard every day.

And every day I think about Christopher Grey

[00:19:35] Catherine: yeah, well, thank you for sharing that. That is amazing. And just all of the names, also that connection.

Yeah. Oh gosh. And now you mentioned the, the students with special needs, the children with special needs, that was something that was very intriguing as you, that was the first thing I learned about you was That you do this and that you drive a very long distance to make sure they get to school and then you wait around.

start

[00:20:07] Sandy Gray: is 640 square miles and there's only one high school on the island of Skye. There's about 12 primary schools, but the two children that I pick up, um, it takes me, I leave here at half past six in the morning one of the children is a child and the other has got non verbal.

Autism both have got needs. Thankfully I have a tutor with me and we take them to school each day and then we do the return trip in the afternoon and it's a pleasure to see these children thrive and grow and learn in mainstream education. They're not in mainstream classes, they're in an area in the school called the base with adults with special needs

teaching qualifications that educate these children in a different way, whether it be through computers or sign language or whatever. But it's great to see these children thrive.

[00:21:05] Catherine: and that's such a great attitude.

, and again, that's how we met was in the taxi when my husband and I decided we didn't wanna carry our groceries two and a half miles, which is a shame because, um, two and a half miles is not that far and we're used to going farther. But it was, it was a blessing in disguise that we decided that evening.

[00:21:27] Sandy Gray: Well, as I said, you meet some lovely people in the taxi and another story was maybe two or three years ago when I was asked to go and pick up some people to take them to Kilmuir on a Sunday. Kilmuir the north end of the island, and the only thing in Kilmuir is the grave of Flora MacDonald, the famous Scottish heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape from the, the Hanoverian troops, and the Museum of Life, uh, which is 68 cottages which you can enter, and it shows you how people lived in the 17th, 18th century.

But across from Flora MacDonald's grave is the grave of Lee Alexander McQueen, famous dress designer. So anyway, I went down to the harbour and picked up four folk that came on up a beautiful sleek looking vessel, a 1928 steamer, and off the vessel came, uh, A woman in a flowing dress carrying a bouquet of flowers and three gentlemen who I would describe as Tramps

the way they were dressed, but this was modern fashion clothing. They got into the taxi and because they hadn't been to Skye before and I said they'll take them The Kumuir and take them around the north end of the island before taking them back to their, their accommodation in the boat. On our way there, there was a tribute that Sunday afternoon to, uh, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and they wanted the radio up loud. So they got the radio up loud and listened to Peter Green. We got halfway to our, destination when one of the gentlemen wanted to stop 'cause there was a beautiful rainbow between Flodaigh Island and Staffa Island. He got out with his camera. Took some photographs and they all had a cigarette. So I took them up to Kilmuir and the lady and one of the gents, the gent with the camera, went to Lee Alexander McQueen's graveside where they lay the flowers that they had with them and paid homage at his grave. I then took them to Fairy Glen where they, for five minutes, where they spent 35 minutes in Fairy Glen and took them back to their boat. Prior to me picking them up, the boatswain said to me, don't ask for cash, I'll square you up when you come back. So when we duly arrived back, we had a 15 minute conversation before their came in and we talked about this, that and the next thing.

And we said our goodbyes. The boatswain came up to pay for the taxi hire and my nose got the better of me and I said, who the hell were they? And he says, you didn't recognize Kate Moss when you had that on the back of the taxi. So the, it was Kate Moss and then, partner, the Nicholas von Bismarck, the famous photographer of German aristocracy.

So you never know who you've got in the back of the taxi. So when I came home, I obviously know who Kate Moss is, but I didn't recognize her. And I came home and I googled Kate Moss and found out that she had been a bridesmaid. at the wedding of Lee Alexander McQueen when he married his partner.

Yeah, there's the connection.

[00:24:43] Sandy Gray: Yeah, so you just do not know who you're picking up. Well I picked up this Catherine Paisworthy and here I am today.

[00:24:52] Catherine: That's right. That's right. You were very humorous as well, and it was, again, it was a two and a half mile drive and we learned a lot about you in the two and a half miles. , we had a great conversation, learned so much. We've kept in touch and I, I.

Value your friendship, and I appreciate it, and I appreciate, of course, the service that you provide to Scotland and to the children.

And so now we are, well, did I miss anything about you?

[00:25:25] Sandy Gray: 70 years is a lot to get condensed into 30 minutes.

No, as I said the the You meet some lovely folk and it's a pleasure to meet them and show them around the island. You know, there's a pleasure.

[00:25:38] Catherine: Well, Anybody that rides in your taxi is going to enjoy your laugh, your humor, and just your hospitality as a driver. So, I thank

[00:25:49] Sandy Gray: Oh, it's nice to be nice. You're a long time dead, Catherine. You're a long time dead, so it's nice to be nice and it doesn't cost anything.

[00:25:56] Catherine: Oh, there you go. I like that. I love that. So, and again, that's part of your positive imprint and your fabulous outlook on life.

So now as we move, we're going to go to your, your family, you have this, wow, just this history and to have a, it was great uncle, correct?

[00:26:20] Sandy Gray: Yeah, well, set the scene. I was born and brought up in Inverness. My father and my grandparents were born and brought up in the shores of Loch Ness in a village called Foyers. Foyers is a small township and the only thing that was famous for was high grade aluminium, a high grade aluminium factory in the shores of

Loch Ness. When we got married in 74, uh, our first married Peace Quarters on Peace Station was Fort Augustus at the south end of Lochness. Now, I was . Brought up knowing that my great uncle Hugh, my grandmother's brother, was credited for taking the first ever photograph of the Lochness Monster.

Sláinte mhath.

A. Sláinte mhath.

. Sandy will reveal the rest of his story about his own sighting of the Loch Ness Monster and delve into details about his great uncle, who was the first to capture a photograph of Scotland's famous Nessie, right here, on the next episode of Your Positive Imprint.

[00:27:21] Catherine: Thank you for listening and supporting this podcast. Go to your positive imprint.com for more information and listen to over 200 episodes of your positive imprints from any podcast platform or from your positive imprint.com. Until next time. Your positive imprint, what's your pi?