Scotsman Obituaries: Jimmy Warnock MBE, farmer and former chairman of the Royal Highland Show

Only Jimmy could come up with the idea of attempting a world record for having the most eightsome reels in one area on the Friday evening of the Royal Highland Show. As outgoing chairman of the Royal Highland Show in 2019, he enthused more than 300 participants into the main ring at Ingliston to take part in such a shindig.

A loving husband to Elizabeth, proud father of Jayne, Carol- Anne and Helen and doting grandfather of Ashley, Rachel and Andrew, Jimmy was a man of strong principles, honesty and integrity, with a faith which was very important to him. He worshipped all his life, taught Sunday school for many years and served as an elder for more than 50 years.

Born in March1946, at Braidenhill, Glenmavis, Jimmy was the second oldest of four boys, who moved to Sandilands and Burnhouse farms when the family took over the tenancy from Douglas and Angus Estates in 1948. Watchknowe Farm was later added in 1973.

He attended Carmichael school and then Lanark Grammar. Destined to be a farmer, he left school at 15 and completed his formal education by attending the West of Scotland Agricultural College in Blythswood Square, Glasgow, where there were 77 in his year. He came fourth in his final exams, amazing himself and his brothers John and Tom, who went on to become a vet and an anaesthetist, respectively. Tragically, his other younger brother, Robin, died in a motoring accident. This left Jimmy and his father running the dairy farm which, as a result of their ability and work ethic, they were able to buy in 1983.

Jimmy's lifelong association with Young Farmers Clubs began at just 16 years of age when his friend and neighbour James Gilchrist took him to his first Lanark Club meeting. He took to Young Farmers like a duck to water, enjoying all club functions and activities, excelling at speechmaking, stock judging, concerts and drama and taking on all leadership positions.

He trained in speechmaking and stock judging teams and enjoyed producing annual concerts both on and off stage – who could forget the Mackindales, Lanark YFC’s answer to the Chippendales? Jimmy was also instrumental in the creation of the SAYFC (Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs) West Region Talent spot in 1968 which grows in popularity, and indeed, professionalism year on year.

Jimmy's days of entertaining the public weren't just confined to SAYFC, though; he also formed a country dance band. He played the accordion in the band with Scott Aitchison (drums), Stewart Toy (guitar), David White (keyboard), Jimmy Frame (saxophone) and William Mitchell (vocals). They played mainly in local halls and hotels for weddings and parties and, given the fact rock and roll was becoming extremely popular at that time, Jimmy rewrote the lyrics to break into this much more lucrative new genre.

His first attempt, entitled “Tear drops on my pillow but the rest of the bed’s alright”, was closely followed by “When banana skins are falling I’ll come sliding back to you”.

Jimmy met his future wife, Elizabeth Gilmour, when a busload of Ayrshire young farmers, including two young ladies from Humeston, came through to a dance in Lanarkshire. While he danced with Agnes Gilmour first, he fell for her sister, Elizabeth, and the couple were soon married in 1973, setting up home at Watchknowe Farm.

Renowned for his stockmanship, Jimmy was one of a group of Lanarkshire farmers who introduced Texel sheep to Scotland in 1974. Number 16 in the newly formed Texel Society Flockbook, his Watchknowe flock won the breed society's first breed championship at the family's local Lesmahagow Show.

Further successes were achieved with Watchknowe Lady Madonna, the flock’s prolific show-winning ewe that achieved eight breed championship titles and three interbreed titles in one year. Sales success for the flock was achieved in 2005 with the 44,000gns Watchknowe Lanark Kracker and 20,000gns Watchknowe Lord James.

A former chairman of the Texel Sheep Society, he took great satisfaction in watching the breed become the most popular terminal sire in Britain. He enjoyed judging local and national shows and sales in the UK and abroad, and in 2024 he was presented with a President’s Award for 50 years of dedication to the Texel sheep breed at the society's 50th anniversary celebrations in Chester.

His efforts in the sheep industry as a whole had previously been recognised in 2012 when he received the NSA Scottish Region Silver Salver from King Charles at Dumfries House.

But 2012 was Jimmy’s year, winning The Scottish Farmer’s Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture award, and subsequently the honour of that year’s Champion of Champions title, a well-deserved accolade.

Of the multitude of organisations Jimmy was involved in; it was the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) that gave him the most personal satisfaction. Jimmy was a founding member of the Trust and saw hundreds of children visit Sandilands over the years. He also served a term as RHET chairman and was in his element showing children around the farm at Sandilands.

He raised a huge amount of money for RHET, too, with one of his most adventurous fundraising schemes being an ascent of Ben Nevis. There was a catch, though – Jimmy had to do the morning milking at Sandilands, travel to Fort William, climb the mountain, travel home and all in time to get back for the evening milking. The team managed the feat in no small way due to having a very speedy drive to Fort William and back.

Jimmy's colossal amount of work with RHET resulted in him receiving an MBE in 2015 for services to Education and Communication.

His huge appetite for helping others extended to raising money for several other good causes. In one instance he, teamed up with Crawfordjohn athlete Bob Drife, taking on a 26-mile marathon to raise money for a local youngster suffering from spina bifida. Bob later declared that Jimmy actually ran the 26 miles twice that day as he would set off at a great pace but kept coming back to see how Bob was getting on.

Jimmy was also a dab hand on the microphone at many agricultural shows, his commentary to farming and non-farming attendees being second to none.

He was a huge supporter of his own local Abington Show, too, with many years on the show committee and serving a term as president. He was made an honorary life president in recognition.

As a director of the Royal Highland Show for many years, Jimmy took on the role of head sheep steward and was honoured to be elected chair in 2017 and 2018, overseeing two extremely successful shows.

After many years working for the organisation, he was also extremely proud to judge the individual inter-breed sheep championship at the Highland Show in 2024, when he took a short break from his cancer treatment to ensure he was well enough to accomplish the task.

Jimmy often talked about standing for Parliament and what he would do when he became Prime Minister. The country would certainly be in a far better place now if he had done, although I'm sure he'd still need his first lady Elizabeth, and his girls, Jayne, Carol-Anne and Helen, by his side to keep him right.

Obituaries

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