Full story can be told behind plan for Kincraig respite base
The transformation of a Badenoch hotel into a respite centre for the armed forces is now under way – partly with money paid by an English council as compensation for “a destroyed childhood”.
Only now, after years of legal wrangling, has the full story been allowed to emerge.
Tony Brown, the man behind the project to turn Kincraig’s Ossian Hotel into a self-catering retreat, explained: “Since I launched my Forces Manor project I was never totally sure just how it would be funded but things have now become much clearer.
“The fact is, I have been awarded a six-figure compensation for a destroyed childhood and I can’t think of a better way to use the money than to spend it creating a place for members of the forces, veterans and children in care.
“Having started life with nothing, I don’t need anything now. I’d rather give the money away so it can be spent on something special, something important.”
Mr Brown, formerly of Aviemore, where he published a series of hugely successful snowsport guides and ‘Parki’, told the Strathy: “The compensation relates to my time as a child in care.
“Some who know me will be aware that I was brought up in a children’s home but what they don’t know is that my childhood was lost and I only got out when I escaped and joined the Army aged 16.
“The home was run by an uncaring, corrupt and incompetent council. In recent years the lid has been blown off the place, to expose a horror catalogue of epic portions.
Even after the exposure the council were wholly unsympathetic to those who suffered and, in my case, even managed to ‘lose’ all my records.”
Mr Brown’s abuser went on to serve a 10-year prison sentence.
Every former resident of Lambeth Council’s Shirley Oaks was promised compensation in 2016 whether they were abused or not.
A report by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA) in 2016 outlined abuse on an “industrial scale”. It claimed at least 60 abusers were active from the 1950s to the closure of the homes in 1983.
Lambeth Council accepted liability for the scandal. The story is due to be told in Mr Brown’s memoirs now being prepared for publication.
“Hundreds of us, parentless, without families, were housed in 52 separate bleak and menacing homes dotted around fields and woods. It was hell for so many of us who suffered abuse of every kind, real, intense, perpetual – a nightmare without waking.”
On one brief break from the tortures of the home, the young Tony was introduced to the Ossian Hotel: “The family were wonderful to me and as I grew up I kept in touch with them all.
“I was happy in my turn to help them out in later years and now they are gone I have taken over full responsibility for the place and just want to give something back to the building and the Army.”
Mr Brown has received heartfelt encouragement from the top brass who are watching developments closely.
To find out more/contribute go to www.forcesmanor.com
