Stuart Roy McIvor some might say had a poor start in life. His father was killed at the end of WW2 when Stuart was only a few weeks old. His mother abandoned him to his father's family in Edinburgh where for a while he lived in genteel poverty with his Highland grandmother. Life improved when he won a scholarship to a public school in Surrey.He joined the Metropolitan Police as a 17 year old cadet. Stuart will say it was because he needed somewhere to live and the Met supplied accommodation.Stuart had an adventurous career which progressed through patrolling diverse areas of the Metropolis, including Battersea; Fulham; Notting Hill and his beloved Chelsea, to assignments with The Royalty Protection Branch at Buckingham Palace, and working as an undercover officer for a secretive Yard department in such places as California and Berlin. For a short while, he was also a village copper in the South Shropshire Hills. He managed to do all this whilst suffering from alcoholism, depression and marriage breakdown during the final ten years of his career. At times he trod a lonely path.He retired to a remote cottage on a small outlying Orkney island, but soon got involved in other activities including driving a bus, running a hostel and tour guiding around Scotland. He then became a City Councillor in Edinburgh for the Scottish National Party.When he was 71, he rescued a young man from the North Sea for which he received an award from the Royal Humane Society and featured in a BBC documentary.Nowadays, Stuart works with Jewish organisations and others to bring a better understanding of life in Israel and Palestine. He has visited Israel and the West Bank. Stuart has been barred from entering Gaza.He has been sober many years but is now combating cancer with dignity and humour!
