I remember having a typhoid injection towards the end of my first year because I was going to Switzerland to work over the summer holidays and we had the typhoid epidemic in Aberdeen after some imported tins of corned beef had been cooled in some Argentinian River, would it have been the River Plate? The cooling process must have let the bacteria into the tins and I believe around 400 people were hospitalised in Aberdeen. The injection made me quite ill just at the time of the Degree Exams. I decided I was far too ill to turn in and was just snuggling down at home when the phone rang. It was Dr. Begg. Where was I? Didn't I realise these were very important exams? I had better get up and get myself ready because he was coming to fetch me. Come he did and I was ushered somewhat sheepishly and belatedly into the Zoology exam, were they in the Mitchell Hall in those days? I don't remember but I do remember failing the wretched thing because I hadn't exactly put myself out to revise, having decided to give it a miss. I agree wholeheartedly with Douglas about the genetics, a complicated subject but one I enjoyed and I still have the textbook Mike wrote, that we all used, used it myself when teaching a bit of genetics and eventually lent it to our daughter to help her with her midwifery studies. I wonder how many other people would have so put themselves out for a not particularly promising student. I feel ashamed that I didn't do him more justice by working harder.
My principal memory of Mike Begg - aside from his brilliant eccenticity btw - his PhD thesis was 15pp long, I believe) - was the story he told of a tramp that used to stop in at regular intervals at his childhood farm home in Aberdeenshire. Food was sent out to the tramp, who was ensconced in the barn. Young Mike (and did he have a brother accomplice?) mixed some cow dung in with the potatoes (must have been masked in gravy?) enroute from his Mum to the visitor. Later the erstwhile victim returned his plate to the kitchen door, expressing his thanks for a great meal - adding with great enthusiasm, "Man, they chappit tatties wis gran'." Whatever point Dr Begg was making was lost forever in hilarity over little Mike's failure to make the impression he had intended!
Douglas Bremner
Mike was an excellent genetics teacher.Douglas Bremner 1956 - 1960
Jacky Hendry (Simpson)
I remember having a typhoid injection towards the end of my first year because I was going to Switzerland to work over the summer holidays and we had the typhoid epidemic in Aberdeen after some imported tins of corned beef had been cooled in some Argentinian River, would it have been the River Plate? The cooling process must have let the bacteria into the tins and I believe around 400 people were hospitalised in Aberdeen.The injection made me quite ill just at the time of the Degree Exams. I decided I was far too ill to turn in and was just snuggling down at home when the phone rang. It was Dr. Begg. Where was I? Didn't I realise these were very important exams? I had better get up and get myself ready because he was coming to fetch me.
Come he did and I was ushered somewhat sheepishly and belatedly into the Zoology exam, were they in the Mitchell Hall in those days? I don't remember but I do remember failing the wretched thing because I hadn't exactly put myself out to revise, having decided to give it a miss.
I agree wholeheartedly with Douglas about the genetics, a complicated subject but one I enjoyed and I still have the textbook Mike wrote, that we all used, used it myself when teaching a bit of genetics and eventually lent it to our daughter to help her with her midwifery studies.
I wonder how many other people would have so put themselves out for a not particularly promising student. I feel ashamed that I didn't do him more justice by working harder.
Gordon Keddie
My principal memory of Mike Begg - aside from his brilliant eccenticity btw - his PhD thesis was 15pp long, I believe) - was the story he told of a tramp that used to stop in at regular intervals at his childhood farm home in Aberdeenshire. Food was sent out to the tramp, who was ensconced in the barn. Young Mike (and did he have a brother accomplice?) mixed some cow dung in with the potatoes (must have been masked in gravy?) enroute from his Mum to the visitor. Later the erstwhile victim returned his plate to the kitchen door, expressing his thanks for a great meal - adding with great enthusiasm, "Man, they chappit tatties wis gran'." Whatever point Dr Begg was making was lost forever in hilarity over little Mike's failure to make the impression he had intended!