John McCallum was born in Glasgow in 1917, and was brought up there and in Oban. He left school aged 14 to work as a Boy Messenger in the Post Office. Aged 18, he transferred to its Engineering Department as a trainee and spent two years on external telephone work, later being transferred to indoor work on switchboards. He joined the Supplementary Reserves in the Royal Signal Corps in 1935, where his step-brother Jimmy O'Neill was already enlisted.The Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (George Robertson) was elected to the House of Commons in 1978. He was appointed Defence Secretary in 1997 and was Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2003.