THIS week we look at four more Ayrshire heroes - including a war hero, a golfing legend, a major author and the founder of the Labour Party.

(Image: Contributed) Donald Caskie

A minister at Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay in later life, the Rev Dr Donald Caskie became known as ‘The Tartan Pimpernel’ for his World War II exploits.

The Rev Caskie, born in 1902, helped an estimated 2,000 Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen to escape from occupied France.

Having denounced the evils of Nazism from the pulpit, Caskie found himself forced to flee Paris. He fled south, eventually ending up in Marseilles on the French south coast.

Here, at the British Seamen’s Mission, Caskie set up a refuge for stranded Britons, and helped Allied service personnel to flee France.

This was, of course, dangerous work. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to death, but thanks to the intervention of a German pastor, instead spent the rest of the war in a Prisoner of War camp, resuming his ministry in Paris after the war.

He was awarded an OBE and also honoured by the French government for his wartime service.

To help pay for the rebuilding of the Scots Kirk in Paris, his autobiography was published in 1957, entitled ‘The Tartan Pimpernel’.

Caskie finally returned to Scotland in 1961 to become minister at Wemyss Bay and Skelmorlie, and died in 1983.

(Image: Contributed) Colin Montgomerie

Hailed as the greatest player never to have won a major, Yorkshire-born Colin Montgomerie remains one of Scotland’s most successful players.

Monty moved to Ayrshire when his dad took on the highly prestigious role of Secretary at Royal Troon Golf Club. Following a glorious spell as an amateur he turned professional in 1988 and was named European Tour Rookie of the Year.

He has been three times runner-up in the US Open and was second only to Tiger Woods in the 2005 Open Championship at St Andrews as well as finishing second to Steve Elkington in the 1995 USPGA Championship.

He won the European Order of Merit a record eight times - and his Ryder Cup record has been exceptional.

Monty remarkably never lost a singles match and his points haul in the showdown with the United States is 23.5, only 1.5 points behind all-time record holder Nick Faldo. He later went on to captain the team at the 2010 Ryder Cup victory on American soil.

(Image: Contributed) John Galt

The Irvine man is renowned for writing what is regarded as the first political novel in the English language, The Provost, which was based on characters and events in his home town

Born in 1779. his published works include the first full biography of Lord Byron, who became a great friend of his after he moved to London in 1804.

During an extremely eventful life, Galt - who lived for periods in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere - published many novels and school texts.

He was the secretary of a company established to aid the colonization of parts of northern Canada, attempted to establish a Gibraltarian trading company to beat Napoleon’s embargo on British trade, was involved in several business ventures and served as secretary of the Royal Caledonian Asylum in London.

Galt and his wife had three sons, all prominent in Canadian politics in their day. 

(Image: Contributed)

James Keir Hardie

The man who became the first leader of Parliamentary Labour Party was born in Lanarkshire in 1856, but made his name in Ayrshire.

In 1879, Hardie became secretary of the Ayrshire Miners’ Association and moved to Cumnock, where he organised a strike for better wages. The bitter dispute failed and he was sacked by the Union.

The following year he had turned his hand to journalism and was writing for the ‘Cumnock News’ and the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald.

Four years later, he became Secretary of the New Ayrshire Miners’ Union and in 1888 stood as the candidate for the newly-formed Labour Party in Mid-Lanark.

He failed in his bid to reach Westminster but was successful four years later when West Ham voters spotted his potential.

Now the leader of the Labour Party, he was returned to Westminster as MP for Merthyr Tydfil. He continued to retain the Cumnock home he built in 1891, Lochnorris.

It was to that home the 59-year-old - and seriously ill - Hardie returned in 1915. He died later that same year in a nursing home in Glasgow.

Look out for more Ayrshire heroes next week...