Syd Scroggie was a mountaineer, poet, skier, scholar and in truth, a man of many parts. Sadly, while serving as a Lieutenant in the Lovat Scouts during World War 2, his world was blown apart by a German mine at Gesso Ridge in Italy….it blew off his leg and blinded him. Undeterred, Syd went on to a ‘career’ in the outdoors, stomping around the mountains of Scotland with a hand on a friends shoulder for guidance. The Cairngorms were his great love, in particular, Glen Clova, and in 1989 he published the aptly entitled book, Cairngorms Scene and Unseen, a litany of halycon days afoot in his beloved hillls. Syd had a real job after the war, working on the switchboard at NCR in Dundee, just a few miles from his home in Strathmartine. Founder of our collection, Mick Tighe, was a good friend of Syd’s and on one of his many visits to the family home , Syd gave Mick this telephone which was the first one he’d used at NCR after the war. A fabulous memento of a dear friend now departed. “He gaed his ain gait aw his life and whiles wi ithers een”