This year’s highest Manx Award is being bestowed on Ian Qualtrough, a Castletown man whose family have owned the wood mill there. [The Tywald website is not being very switched on over this – the news has broken in the papers but there’s nothing on their own website at http://www.tynwald.org.im It’s still a good place to visit though.]
Mr Qualtrough, 83, has a busy life outside his role of managing the family business: building suppliers and timber yard J. Qualtrough and Co. Limited.
He is a prolific entertainer at the heart of many local events. He is a Friend of the Gaiety Theatre, a mainstay of Castletown Methodist church, a lifetime chorister, a member of the Lhon Dhoo Male Voice Choir, a former member of the Meadowside Choral Society and former president of the Isle of Man Beekeepers’ Federation. But what he really loves is the Eisteddfod of which he is a master. I have seen him many times in action and he is a terrific raconteur, Emcee, and leg-puller. Well done Tynwald, the man is a national treasure.
[And as a teenager I remember being very taken with his handsome sons and would even volunteer to accompany my dad to the timber yard in case I caught a glimpse! There, they say confession is good for the soul but now I feel all the embarrassment of adolescence again.]
Story on IOM Today.
