Colin Wilson Mackie was born on March 18, 1929 in Lenzie, Scotland, a town just north of Glasgow. Colin was born at 6.30 a.m. at number 10, Glenbank Terrace in Lenzie. He was the first-born child to Alexander Sidney (Sid) Mackie and Myrtle Dorothy Mackie (nee Willey). Sid was born in Portsmouth in 1890 and was the youngest of 4 children. His grandfather John Mackie moved south to Portsmouth from the traditional family hometown of St Andrew’s in Fife in 1860, for work. Both Sid’s father and grandfather were shipwrights (carpenters), so it was perhaps inevitable that Sid got involved in shipping matters himself, becoming a senior civil servant and ship surveyor in the Transport Ministries, working in government for 53 years in all. Myrtle was born in Canterbury in Kent in 1899, and her family can be traced back there to the early 18th century at least. She had 5 brothers and sisters and was proud of her Kentish roots. She met Sid at a cycling club in south London in the early 1920s. In 1935, Colin was blessed with a younger sibling, Janette (Jan), who was also born in Lenzie. Like many young children Colin initially resented the sudden presence of a baby sibling, although the two became close as the years went on. Sid was a relatively senior civil servant regarding shipping matters, and as such his job moved around the UK. Consequently, Colin’s pre-war childhood was spent in a number of different towns, including Lenzie (just north of Glasgow), Aberdeen and also in Horsham (just outside of London). When war broke out the family were living in Horsham, with Sid working in London. Colin attended Collyers School in Horsham during those years, at the ages of 7, 8 and 9. After the war began they moved down to Dawlish on the south Devon coast, and frequently witnessed German bombers passing overhead on the way to the heavy industrial plants of south Wales. In early January 1941 Sid was posted to Glasgow. He was to take over responsibility for the oversight and administration of all military shipping on the Clyde, an incredibly responsible and important wartime post. This posting initially led to an epic wartime car journey, involving steep hills, no road signs (they had all been removed in case of invasion), overnight stays with friends and family and a puncture during an air raid. However, arrive the family did. They initially lived in Largs, in seaside accommodation operating for the winter. They moved to a number of different places, but in 1942 settled in Greenock, the town that became the centre of Colin’s lifelong footballing passion for the local team, Greenock Morton. Childhood years during the war were not the easiest. The limit on sweets for children was 2 ounces per week, and Colin spent the rest of his life dedicatedly making up for this childhood lack of sugar. In addition, Sid worked seven days per week, leaving early in the morning and coming home late in the evening, exhausted from a long day. His only concession to the family was coming home early, by 4pm, on Sunday afternoons for Sunday tea. Colin therefore rarely saw or was able to talk to his father during some critical formative years. Sid did however make sure that Colin was aware of the evils of smoking, by having him suck hard on a cigarette at the age of 11 or 12. The coughing fit that resulted was sufficient that Colin never went near a cigarette, or indeed an alcoholic drink, for the rest of his life. Colin attended Greenock Academy during the war years, where he first met as a schoolboy his lifelong friends Michael Close and Gordon Roser. His education was of a sufficient quality (Colin passed his Scottish higher exams) that, when the family moved down to Bristol in 1946, he was able to take and pass the Civil Service exams. His first job was working for the Admiralty in Bath, and he consequently commuted from Bristol to Bath each day, while Sid was working in Bristol. In 1948 Sid was posted back to London, and the family moved to a house in Golders Green. Colin was however now eligible for National Service, and duly served his slightly less than two years from 1948 to 1950, posted to the main Army base in Aldershot, Hampshire. He served in the Army Ordnance Corps.