THE Rev. James Currie was one of many ''deserving Highland Lads'' who

benefited from a trust set up nearly 80 years ago by the founder of Keil

School, the Victorian empire builder Sir William MacKinnon.

From modest beginnings in 1915, when 18 boys and two masters assembled

at Keil House on the Mull of Kintyre to found Kintyre Technical School,

Keil has gone on to become one of Scotland's leading independent,

co-educational boarding and day schools.

The story of the school from its early days, when it provided

education for boys from the Highlands and Islands from poor backgrounds

-- such as the young James Currie of Arran -- to its relocation at

Helenslee, Dumbarton, to the present is told in a history of Keil by

Roddy MacAskill.

Appropriately, he grew up on Barra and, after a year at Castelbay

High, went to Keil in 1932. He spent most of his working life with G.

and J. Weir, now Weir Pumps, and played an active part in the Old Boys'

Club.

The History of Keil School is published by the Old Boys' Club in

association with the MacKinnon-MacNeill Trust, price #20.