Former Presbyterian church minister James Gregory, known to most as Jim, greatly enjoys visiting his weekly art class in Auchterarder to improve his drawing.
The art enthusiast from Auchterarder is set to turn 100 on Sunday, October 9 - but as no card from Buckingham Palace is expected, his friends have rallied to gather birthday wishes.
His milestone birthday is likely to be a quiet occasion as Jim has no children and his wife died 22 years ago, but he’ll be guaranteed three cheers on Tuesday when he goes for his painting tuition with Douglas Matthews at Ayton Hall.
His pals at the Auchterarder Art Club hope to make his day with lots of good wishes when he comes to the popular painting and drawing class.
In the lead up to the big day, fellow art club member Shelagh Gregory - no relation - wanted to arrange for a royal birthday message for Jim.
But Shelagh’s enquiries about a card from Buckingham Palace have sadly drawn a blank. It's a bad time to turn 100.
The website to apply and enquire says: “You currently cannot apply for a birthday or anniversary message.
“If you’ve already applied, your application will not be processed until operations resume. You’ll be told when a message has been arranged.”
Since the Queen died on September 8, the governmental department responsible for organising a traditional 100th birthday greeting card signed by the senior Royal has come to a standstill, so former churchman Jim will not get a birthday message from the Palace for his mantelpiece, at least not this weekend.
Not wanting Jim to be forgotten she went over to find out a little about Londoner Jim’s long life, the last third of which he has lived in Perthshire.
Shelagh said: “Jim was an only child, born in London’s north end. His father was a clerk at a city ironmonger.
“Young Jim was conscripted to the RAF as a wireless mechanic in 1942. His job was making sure all radios/receivers/transmitters on the ground and in aircraft were in correct working order.
“It was here that he met Barbara, who was to become his wife. She was in a similar role, often decoding messages to send to Bletchley Park.
“Jim went to Swindon where he was trained in doing the ‘standard beam approach’ helping with a new way to help wartime aircraft land safely.”
After this he was posted to Italy from 1944 to 1946.
After demob Jim got ACWA accountancy qualifications. There were many vacancies in Scotland.
Barbara, who he had been writing to, was from Dollar.
Jim took a job in Alloa, with the National Coal Board as an accountant.
He married Barbara in 1948 in her home town of Dollar but they never had children.
His call to God came after attending church and the minister had asked for volunteers to work in the Church of Scotland committees.
Jim joined and attended Trinity College Glasgow for five years.
His first appointment was at Kirkpatrick, Fleming Kirk Church of Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway in 1968.
The couple moved to Blantyre near Hamilton, where Jim was minister from 1978 to 1992.
At the time of Jim's retirement, the church offered to rent a house of their choosing and they picked place in Auchterarder, Perthshire.
Sadly Barbara died in 2000.
Jim has been a mature student in the art class at Auchterarder for some years.
As a footnote to Jim's 100th birthday falling at a time when there was no royal in place to officially wish him well, the subject came up on BBC Radio Two on Friday.
Shelagh's partner phoned in to Jeremy Vine's programme to say Jim was disappointed to be missing out on the age-old tradition.
On his radio show, Jeremy Vine read out the message and in a kind gesture, none other than veteran broadcaster Esther Rantzen promised to phone Auchterarde r and personally wish Jim a happy birthday on Sunday.
