James Hardie Brown, who founded with his brother Ian the construction and civil engineering firm I & H Brown, one of the largest such businesses in Scotland, died on March 21 at St Margaret’s Community Hospital in Auchterarder. He was 90.
Mr Brown, known all his life as Hardie, was born in Dunfermline on September 6, 1930, to Jennie and Davie Brown, a farmer.
Hardie grew up at Carnock Mill Farm with his older brother Ian, who died in 2015, and sister Betty. He attended Dunfermline High School until leaving to help his brother on the farm.
In the 1950s the brothers moved to Perthshire, where they bought Innergask Farm in the parish of Findo Gask.
Part of the land was covered by a concrete aerodrome and in the late 1950s Ian and Hardie decided to get rid of it.
To break it up they used a Traxcavator, which aroused interest in the neighbourhood, and they began renting out the machine.
This inspired their plant hire business, and in 1964 they founded I & H Brown, in Perth, which in time would diversify into construction, mining, house-building, and land remediation.
Eventually the business extended to the acquisition and operating of Highland estates. In addition, I & H Brown now own some 4,000 acres in Fife, Perthshire and East Lothian, producing barley, wheat, potatoes, oilseed rape, and grasses. For some years Hardie was chairman of Perth Show.
While civil engineering remains a core activity of I & H Brown, the company’s expertise in mining, and the skills involved with land remediation and reclamation, led to a prescient interest in the environment and a vision of what could be done with renewables.
The company developed wind farms at Calliachar and Toddleburn, along with new ways of engineering previously uncontrolled landfill sites. Describing the company’s approach, Hardie once said: “We always looked for a second use.’
A love of machinery
The Brown brothers were fascinated by machinery and Hardie often said the business was like a boyhood dream.
Hardie served as chairman of the Scottish Plant Owners Association. When he indulged his love of travel, wherever he went he managed to slip in a view of the latest earthmoving equipment.
He delighted in acquiring lorries and painting them in ever-brighter colours. One day Ian had to tell him firmly that he was buying too many, according to his family. Hardie was said to have replied mischievously: “I said to him all right, you have my word that as from this moment in time I won’t buy any more. He didn’t know that that morning I’d bought 10.”
Work ethic
Hardie’s biggest interest in life remained I & H Brown. Even after semi-retirement he would come into the office with his son in the mornings to open the mail. He was said to have an uncanny ability to spot envelopes which contained cheques. He also prided himself on switching off the lights.
But he was also a keen sportsman, car rallying, shooting and curling being his chief passions.
He was an active, not to say extremely competitive, member of the 55 Car Club and was co-driver with his brother-in-law Bobby Crawford in the famed Monte Carlo rally, driving a Mini Cooper.
Sprints and other race activities took place on the Brown property at Gask. He travelled abroad to attend Formula One events in Europe and South America, often with his brother-in-law Tom Muir, who found him very outgoing. “He could speak to anyone. I would love to have known both Hardie and Ian as young men – they must have been tremendous fun and so full of beans,” said Tom.
Sportsman
Hardie loved shooting all his life – in early years, a day out with neighbouring farmers, and latterly, at the family farm near Auchterarder.
“His shoots were always jovial, with a bunch of interesting people,” recalled Iain Bett, a colleague in the plant industry. “Hardie never looked for big bags. It was the conviviality that mattered.”
A member of Findo Gask and Broomhall Curling Clubs, Hardie had the honour of being “made”. This curious rite took place at Broomhall where, as a protege of his friend Lord Elgin, he came to no real harm.
Trademark cigar
Once, on a curling trip to Ottawa, Hardie took the wrong lift in his hotel and became lost below stairs; fortunately, the concierge detected him by the aroma of his signature Monte Cristo cigar.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a relative, was in awe of Hardie’s business acumen.
Speaking at Hardie’s funeral at Perth on March 29 (by proxy, due to Covid restrictions), Gordon Brown extolled “the scale of his achievement – not one achievement but a record of continuous achievement in farming and in every sphere of business he entered…all singular successes one after another”.
Gordon Brown quipped: “I have always thought that if any family member was to be Chancellor of the Exchequer it should have been Hardie. I’m not sure he would have put up the tax on cigars, which he liked greatly, or wine.”
Gordon’s Brown’s father and Hardie Brown’s father were first cousins.
Family
Hardie Brown married Betty Miller in 1955 and they had two children, Scott, born 1957 and Shane Elizabeth, born in 1966. Hardie and Betty divorced in 1988; he then married Carol Ann Muir, with whom he lived at Mid Fordoun Farm, Auchterarder.
In his later years, Hardie suffered from dementia. He is survived by Carol, his son Scott, who now directs the family firm, and daughter Shane. His sister Betty Little lives in Yorkshire. In addition, he is survived by two step-children, Ann-Maree and Russell, four grandchildren, Abigail, Duncan, Edward and Michael, and a great-granddaughter, Hallie.
The family’s announcement can be read here.