Joseph 'Tex' Geddes was born in 1919 in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, and is believed to have been brought up in Canada. Expelled from school at the age of 12, he tried his hand at various jobs, including as a boxer, a lumberjack and a rum-smuggler. During World War Two he served with the Seaforth Highlanders and the Special Forces, and after the war became a shark fisherman. With his wife he bought the Hebridean island of Soay and lived there for 30 years. He died in the Isle of Skye in 1998 and is survived by one son, Duncan Geddes.