Falklands : Horace (Su) Binnie Much Loved and Sadly Missed
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 23.11.2008 (Article Archived on 07.12.2008)
(An Obituary Presented by the Rev Dr Richard Hines)
Photos supplied by Muriel Harvey Rose and Su playing records.
HORACE (SU) BINNIE
(An Obituary Presented by the Rev Dr Richard Hines)
“I am glad of the privilege of saying a few words this afternoon on behalf of family, all the friends and acquaintances of Su Binnie. I met Su a couple of times myself when I was on West Falkland and I didn’t get to know him that well, though. I am very grateful indeed to people who told me about his life and shared your recollections with me. And, I trust that as I speak about Su now you will recognise the one that you know. And if you want to come and tell me stories about him afterwards or things that I might not have got quite right, I should be very glad indeed.
Su and Rose Binnie on their wedding day on 10 October 1942
Horace James Binnie was born during WW1 on the 23rd of October 1916 at Black Hill – part of Chartres on West Falkland. He was to be the eldest of six children. There were two boys and four girls born to his father, James George Binnie and his mother, Muriel Avis Elizabeth Binnie. Tragically Su’s mother, known to most people – I think in her day simply as Dolly – died in the flu epidemic in 1937, just when Su’s little sister, “Chubby,” was only 4 years old. Chubby apparently struggled as a young child to say the word, “you.” But when she pointed her finger at her elder brother she could always manage to say – not you – but Su. And so her brother Horace became known as Su from then on.
Su’s working life began under the supervision of his father at Black Hill, with whom he worked as a second shepherd. He worked, too, for a while with a man called Keith Betts before moving on to live in Chartres Settlement itself. The next move apparently in 1942 was down to Fox Bay East and it was here, on the 10th of October 1942 that he married Rose Lee the woman who was to be his life’s partner for over 53 years.
Su and Rose enjoyed listening to records.
Together Su and Rose made their home at Blue Mountain and, in due course, Su became the head shepherd there – a position he then held until he retired.
In 1960, Su and Rose were invited to choose the site for a new house that was to be their new home. And together they chose what became known as “Coast Ridge House.” Most of you will have quickly worked out if you didn’t know before that for many years Su and Rose lived over an hour’s horse ride out from Fox Bay East.
The life of an outside shepherd could, of course, be a very isolated one. And, whilst Su was up to a typical shepherd’s activities – riding horses, training and working dogs, looking after the flocks of sheep in his patch and so on – Rose would, of course, be left at home alone. Not that she was always alone – I understand that some of the children from the settlement would go out in those days on ponies and visit Rose in her home and enjoy a nice day with her and then gallop home quickly back to the settlement in the evening.
So there were these many opportunities, you see, which arose when distance came to the home – whether they were family or friends. Nieces can recall happy gatherings at Christmastime – they can recall idyllic stays out at Coast Ridge – penguin egg collecting – can’t do that now, can you – picnicking during the day and listening with Uncle Su and Auntie Rose to their records in the evening. It was in 1983 following the conflict that Packe Brothers Farms were sold ready for sub-division. And this was the cue for Su to retire from his shepherding work after about 50 years in the saddle. He and Rose continued to live at Coast Ridge House until Rose fell and broke her hip. Imagine the upheaval for someone of her age to leave the isolation of Coast Ridge, be flown in a helicopter to Stanley and then have to travel by air all the way to the UK for treatment. Well, she managed, of course, but on her return they decided to rent a house in the settlement at Fox Bay Village. Coast Ridge House was just too isolated for them. Rose died in August 1995 and she was buried near Doctor’s Creek at Fox Bay.
So much for the rough outline of Su’s life but of course I have hardly begun, really. This rather extraordinary man, although he spent by far in a way the greater part of his life in the simple but tough and demanding camp of beautiful West Falkland was a life-long observer, a recorder, a collector – or should that be a hoarder – and he was a music man, too. From the earliest days Su had been fascinated by radio. He was adept at assembling all the automated parts to make radio sets for other shepherds. Among the many boxes of interesting stuff that he left behind in his loft was a large box of old radio valves. Outside interests and pastimes included keeping a diary – what precious records they represent now, including details of everyone who visited and the different homes where they lived and the meetings that he’d attended and those who had been there present. And the diary and other papers also contained all the daily weather observations which Su made. There are countless bills and invoices stacked and held together that were received from the various farm managers over many years – all went to make up what Su called, “my Rubbish,” which is there for people to look through and learn a lot from.
Here’s a surprise – on scraps of paper there are quite a number of songs in various stages of development. Su apparently liked to compose songs and there is evidence that he would return to scraps of paper months – years later and re-work a fragment and take it to the next stage. Goodness knows whether he actually sang them.
And then there are the photographs including an album of photographs of grass. But he was a shepherd. And I am told that he was passionate about his grass. It makes sense to me. And together with the photographs and many reels of film – several cameras – and he even had a digital camera and one of the earliest really large and heavy – video cameras. We are talking about a shepherd living an isolated life in West Falkland.
And then there was the passion for music. There can’t be many West Falkland Shepherds who have appeared on a TV programme about Country & Western music presented by a man whose main job in life apparently is a Harley Street Gynaecologist.
And what else ought I to mention – his quad bike, which came in useful after he no longer could manage a horse – his obsession for taking things apart to see how they worked – including – infuriatingly – his hearing aid – the rather high expectation he had of scientific progress. When it was discovered in hospital earlier this year that Su had contracted an MRSA infection, he wanted to know what the Japanese were going to do about that. It would be possible to go on but I won’t.
Today, however you knew, however you remember Su, let’s give heartfelt thanks to God for the memory of this unique man – private person, apparently but a man who in years gone by loved to be with people – liked to talk with them and listen to them – a man who throughout his life had time to stop and stare unhurriedly to observe – to ponder – to reflect and to wonder about things – a man who loved his horses perhaps as much as he loved people – and for whom the loss of a horse quite recently may have signalled the point at which he knew himself to be weary of life. He knew himself to be tired and warn out after 92 years.
And so he confided in someone just a few weeks ago – doing the garden, cutting grass, riding horses – ‘I have nothing left now,’ he said, ‘but my memories and my dreams.’
That’s why we are not sad today but rather simply glad and thankful that we knew Su Binnie – the Shepherd of West Falkland.
May he rest in peace - Amen.”
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