Eric McKellar Watt - sausage magnate
Edwin King
Eric McKellar Watt
Building a sausage empire from a prison mixing bowl
ERIC McKELLAR WATT started making sausages in a tiny shop
in Parliamentary Road, Glasgow, with a mixing bowl discarded
from a prison kitchen, and went on to build a meat product
company known for its slogan “McKellar Watt for Meatiness”.
Not always dealt an easy hand, he made it his pleasure to beat
whatever system was conspiring to make life difficult. And he was
always willing to try something new. Once he experimented with
whisky-flavoured sausages. They were not a commercial success,
and later, with a wry smile, he mused: “Let’s face it. Who wants to
drink their whisky out of a sausage?” Born in Glasgow, he was
christened Alexander McKellar Watt, but later changed his name
to Eric to avoid confusion with his father, who was also in the meat
business. At Glasgow Academy and Strathallan School,
Perthshire, he distinguished himself as a rugby and tennis player.
Many years later he served as a governor of Strathallan.
In 1939 he defied his father, volunteered for the Army and took
up a commission as a captain in the Royal Army Service Corps.
He saw active service in Montgomery’s 8th Army in North Africa
and in Palestine and Greece, where in 1942 he and his patrol were
caught up in sniper fire.
He spent 18 months in an army hospital in Killearn, Stirlingshire,
having his body rebuilt and learning to walk again. A woman
doctor told him he would never drive a car again, so a week later
he persuaded a friend to bring a car to the hospital and promptly
drove it round the compound. As he drove past the doctor she
gave him the thumbs-up sign.
When he founded his business during rationing (using his disability
allowance) one of the first things he did was to buy a
semi-automatic Lanchester, in which he drove himself around the
local butchers to sell his sausages.
He laughed heartily when a journalist wrote “Beneath the tough,
unyielding exterior of Eric McKellar Watt beats an even tougher,
unyielding interior. Other men known for their strength, poise and
confidence have emerged from sessions with Eric McKellar Watt
white, trembling, and sapped of all vitality. Ena Simons, his
secretary, regularly dispenses hot black coffee to the victims as
they reel out of his line of fire.” The writer went on, though, to
extol his business skills, his generosity and loyalty as an employer.
On one occasion his managing director was summoned to receive
a Christmas gift. He expected a bottle of whisky or a piece of
glassware. Instead he was handed the keys of a new Ford Consul.
McKellar Watt was an active member of the Black Loch and
Ballageich angling clubs. He was appointed OBE in 1983.
He married Patricia Ellis in 1955. She survives him, along with
their son and two daughters.
Eric McKellar Watt, OBE, businessman, was born on
March 16, 1920. He died on July 12, 2001, aged 81.
Mike Dickson
> Eric McKellar Watt
> Building a sausage empire from a prison mixing bowl
Wishing to remain in death as he did in life, Eric McKellar Watt has
requested that his mortal remains be ground up along with other assorted
eyes, lips and arseholes, stuffed into sausage skins and sold to the
public as 'meaty goodness'.
Mike Dickson, Edinburgh, Scotland
Dummy address used - to e-mail, replace 'news' with my first name