HE IS Scotland’s most famous son, a dungaree-wearing, spiky-haired scamp who has sown mischief in Auchenshuggle for 70 years.

Now the real-life inspiration of Oor Wullie can finally be revealed. He is Ron Low, the son of RD Low, former editor of The Sunday Post, in which the comic strip first appeared.

Staff at the DC Thomson headquarters in Dundee were struggling for inspiration for a new character when eight-year-old Ron, dressed in dungarees, strode into the office clutching a bucket of potatoes.

Dudley D Watkins, the creator of Oor Wullie and his comic stablemates The Broons, immediately set about sketching him sitting on the upturned bucket. The iconic image, drawn in 1935, defined the character who has remained unchanged ever since.

Although Oor Wullie’s true identity has remained a closely guarded secret, his family and friends believe that as the character enters his eighth decade the time is right for Ron to take his rightful place in comic strip history.

“Young Ron Low walked into the building to see if his dad was coming home for his tea,” recalled Donald Owens, a close friend of Ron’s. “He had tousled hair, was wearing dungarees and carrying a bucket of tatties that he got from his father’s allotment.

“The moment he stepped into the room everyone’s jaw dropped and they said, ‘This is the character we are looking for.’

“Low senior promptly dispatched the artist Dudley D Watkins into an adjacent room with wee Ron. He emptied the bucket and started sketching the young lad wearing dungarees sitting on his bucket. There and then everyone agreed they had found Oor Wullie.”

While Oor Wullie’s interests were restricted to fitba, kartin’, fishin’ and hidin’ from PC Murdoch, Ron went on to study medicine at St Andrews University before emigrating to Canada.

There, he served as a squadron leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) before embarking on a distinguished career as a surgeon in the medical department at RCAF Gimli in Manitoba.

Low returned to Scotland in the 1980s, settling in Inverness. Despite the fame of his alter ego, Low, who died of lung cancer in 1992, was reluctant to talk about his brush with stardom.

“Ron was very modest and didn’t like to boast about being the real-life Oor Wullie,” said Owens, who befriended Ron when they were both members of the Highland branch of the Aircrew Association.

“But his transition from being a wee Dundonian rascal in dungarees to being a decorated airman and a highly respected surgeon in Canada before returning to spend his final years in Scotland is a fascinating story and one that now deserves to be told.”

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