THE family who own an award-winning Musselburgh pub have revealed their close connection with the meteorologist whose pivotal role in the D-Day landings has just arrived on the big screen.
Pressure, which was released in cinemas on Wednesday, tells the story of the tense 72 hours before D-Day and, with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, follows General Dwight D. Eisenhower, played by Brendan Fraser, and Musselburgh-born Royal Air Force Captain James Stagg, played by Andrew Scott, “as they face an impossible choice - launch the largest and most dangerous seaborne invasion in history, or risk losing the war altogether”.
In early June 1944, Eisenhower had to choose the exact date to launch Operation Overlord, the massive seaborne invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
Group Captain Stagg and American meteorologist Irving Krick (played by Chris Messina) clashed over conflicting forecasts. Group Captain Stagg insisted that a severe Atlantic storm was moving in and would make the landing disastrous.
It was his advice on the weather conditions that led to the postponement of the D-Day landings from June 5 to June 6. After the war, this significant contribution was recognised on both sides of the Atlantic.
Nigel Finlay, of The Volunteer Arms in Musselburgh, also known as Staggs, has a family connection with Group Captain Stagg.
Mr Finlay's grandfather, also called James Stagg, who had a saddler’s business on High Street, Musselburgh, was Group Captain Stagg’s cousin.
The pub, on North High Street, has been run by generations of Mr Finlay's family since 1858, and his daughters Katie and Hayley are now at the helm.
According to the National Records of Scotland, Group Captain Stagg CB, OBE, FRSE, was born on June 30, 1900, the son of Alexander Cairns Stagg, a plumber, and Helen Martin, at 122 New Street in Musselburgh.
The family moved to High Street in Dalkeith when he was one.
A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, he joined the British Meteorological Office in 1924, where he later became superintendent at the Kew Observatory. He was also leader of a British Polar Expedition to the Arctic.
In 1944, he was appointed meteorological adviser to General Eisenhower and the other Allied commanders. In later years, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and president of the Royal Meteorological Society. He died in 1975.
On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a memorial plaque was unveiled at Dalkeith Library in tribute to Group Captain Stagg.
Mr Finlay, who is planning on going to see the film, recalled when Group Captain Stagg’s son Peter, who now lives in France, visited for the unveiling event, which he and his brother Ian also attended. Peter, a former Scotland international rugby union player who was selected for the 1968 British Lions tour to South Africa, later popped into Staggs pub with his family to enjoy a pint.
Staggs has won many accolades and was named runner-up in the Scottish Pub of the Year award by CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) this year.
Last year, it was not only judged Pub of the Year for Scotland but later reached the top four of the competition for UK Pub of the Year.
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