I was ‘apprentice’ marshal to John ‘Dog’ Callister at Ballaugh Bridge for about 16 years and each time I would be welcomed with a hearty ‘hey boy!’ and we got on very well.

He had marshalled since 1967 and was deputy sector marshal but there is so much more to his life that needs telling as a true Manx character.

John was born in 1949, the oldest of six children.

His dad grew up at Kerroogarroo and married his mum in 1947, who had come to the island as a land girl during the war.

John ‘Dog’ spent his very early years in a large house called Mount Auldyn on the Jurby Road not far from the Cottage Hospital.

His dad was a gardener and his mum the cook for a family of returnees from India.

After that the family moved to Andreas on one of the former air force sites, then to the newly built Larivane Estate, and he went to school in Andreas.

When he first attended school he was dragged kicking and screaming but couldn’t get back quickly enough after dinner.

He loved every minute of school and ended up with five O-levels, which he never used as he moved into the building trade, working for a long time with partner Dave Skillan from Andreas.

He also built his family home in Kirk Michael after buying the plot and it took a year with him doing all but the specialist trades and not playing football for a year!

It was at Ramsey Grammar School that he got to know the girl who would become his wife better.

Winnie was from Ballaugh and would travel by train to school.

They married in 1971 and have four children.

After I had marshalled with John for a while he invited me to Winnie’s mum’s house in the village which had a lovely cottage garden with honey bees and fresh home made food for lunch.

I became very fond of grandma.

John was very good at sports and football was his favourite at that time.

He played for Ramsey AFC for a season and a half before joining Ayre United, playing in the team in their first game.

Prior to the team starting up all the local lads would play on what became the ‘sports field’.

During his football playing days John ran regularly to keep fit and afterwards carried on. Son Matt is doing well in the running leagues so maybe it’s in the blood.

Winnie was a very good sprinter at school and, unlike John, has completed the Parish Walk, as has son Juan at his first and only attempt! Daughter Erin won the junior Parish race to Peel as well.

As a young man living at the Garey, he was to meet an old man called George Quayle, who was to be very influential in his future love of nature, ornithology and wild flowers in particular.

George showed him how to make a ‘bumbee’ cage and helped him identify plants and they would go off exploring nature together.

It was George who first introduced him to the Curragh to go and have a good skeet around.

John ‘Dog’ is without doubt the foremost authority on this important area and has often been contacted by TV crews to come and discover its secrets.

For five years John worked for Manx National Heritage.

He also worked with the Manx Wildlife Trust in Ballaugh Glen, overseeing volunteers carrying out work on their reserves.

It was at this time that his idea of making ‘three legs’ symbols out of copper wire came about.

Many people now have one of these at their homes, including me, a strong sense of our national identity.

John became interested in Manx Gaelic in his early twenties but could never concentrate on it with so many other things going on.

He has a good grasp of many words but not conversation.

Daughter Jo is now a fluent Manx speaker and is influential in cultural and educational circles which makes him very proud.

His interest in wild flowers led him to bring a book out of the Manx Gaelic names with much help from native speakers and this started from him wanting to take photographs of these wonderful flowers he was discovering.

He had all his photographs made into slides which enabled him to give slide shows.

Another great interest is poetry.

Together with a great friend ‘Hector’ Clarke, with whom he worked with at Jurby, they started to write song lyrics.

In the end they had four books full.

With that catalogue it’s a wonder they didn’t make it to the charts!

Later he noticed there was to be a competition to find a Manx Bard.

He entered three or four of his poems and he was successful in becoming the third Manx Bard.

His work in his own imitable dialect talks of life on our island and Manx things in general and comes from the heart.

Back to sport for a moment, John had a real talent for darts, starting before he was 18 in the Grosvenor where his dad was captain of the team. He became Northern Individual Champion.

When he married he played for the Railway (Raven) in Ballaugh but when they moved to Kirk Michael he played in the Western League.

He was well known not only for his high scores but because of his big brass darts when the trend was towards the modern light tungsten variety.

To get three trebles with these big darts, regularly, was a sight to behold! Indeed on an International stage at L’orient he won the pairs with Peter Kaneen and then the singles the next year.

Another sporting favourite is the Cammag game, which he has played in with vigour, for many years on December 26 at St John’s, obviously for the North versus the South.

Last year he was the hero of the game scoring the winning penalty after the match was a draw at full time.

As you enter Kirk Michael a sign indicates its twinning with Ghamrang in Nepal, a link which came about due to Howard Green headteacher at the school in 1993.

John was very interested and has visited Nepal twice and raised £9,000 to put towards the educational and health projects funded from the Isle of Man.

Distinctive copper bangles with the three legs were made by a craftsman in Ghamrang as John’s idea which raise important funds.

Every Thursday night John is the Quizmaster General at the Mitre and he devises the event around a host of subjects.

When I marshalled with John he would read the Telegraph from cover to cover and particularly enjoyed the crosswords and other brain games.

There is so much more that could be said about John ‘Dog’ Callister but I’m running out of space.

He is a true Manx character, very proud of our island and his family.

I had often wondered where the name ‘Dog’ had come from and was interested to learn it came from his schooldays at Albert Road where he was given a role in a play as PC Bulldog which stuck and eventually became just ‘Dog’.

I’m very happy to call him and his family good friends.