Ian Adamson, who died at the age of 93 in 2014, was an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. His parents were Scottish and he was born in Rosario, Argentina, where his father was working for the country's rail system. Orphaned by the age of 14, he was 18 at the outbreak of the war. He, like hundreds of others in Argentina, volunteered for British military service.
After the war, he became a commercial pilot and started an involvement with what was then a pioneering scheme for underprivileged children in the UK.
When he retired, he and his long-time partner Marie-Claude Coyne settled in Mallorca. They acquired a finca in Banyalbufar, its name is La Paloma Blanca. Occupying 10,000 square metres, it is in an area of outstanding natural beauty and by the Torre des Verger watchtower.
It has been said that his experience of having been orphaned was a reason why he developed a summer place at the finca for disadvantaged island children.
It was his wish that the finca should be donated and continue to provide summer holidays for children who might otherwise not have them. It has taken eleven years and a good deal of sorting out bureaucratic obstacles for his wish to be realised.
The Council of Mallorca, the beneficiary, has discussed the future use of the finca with Marie-Claude. It has been agreed that it will indeed remain a place for children in the summer but will also become a mountain refuge in the winter. It will therefore become the seventh refuge operated by the Council along the Dry Stone Route in the Tramuntana Mountains.
Last month, the Council named Ian Adamson an Adopted Son of Mallorca, and Marie-Claude received this posthumous honour.
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I would advise Mrs Coyne to inform the British Consulate about this kind gesture and ask them to sign a document stating that from now and in perpetuity they will confirm every five years that the property remains a public patrimony and hasn’t “disappeared” to benefit some unscrupulous civil servant’s or politician’s property portfolio.