I was fortunate to be born and brought up on the estate of Andrew Ewing – the man who founded the once famous Buttercup Dairy Company and gave away all of his wealth in his desire to die a poor man.

He was over eighty when I knew him but I still remember him well as the kind old man who used to give me 2/6 (50 cents) every time I met him on his afternoon walk - a lot of money in the 1950s. His kindness reverberated around the estate and my grandfather and Uncle Tom were eternally grateful to him for taking them out of the pit and giving them healthy jobs on the estate with a rent free cottage.

Sometimes Andrew Ewing's generosity verged on the ridiculous, like the time he turned up at my grandfather's door with an unexpected present – a new van, so that my grandfather could take my grandmother out for drives! A proud man, my grandfather wouldn't accept the gift. However, Andrew wasn't finished and turned up the following day to declare – "John, I'm making you a van driver!"The Buttercup: The Remarkable Story of Andrew Ewing and the Buttercup Dairy Company. See also http://www.buttercupdairycompany.co.uk/