Andrew Knapper moved to the UK from Canada in January 2005 for a temporary contract, but never expected to stay. “I was based in Stirling in Scotland for a nine-month role in management consultancy,” he says. One Sunday that summer, he and a friend decided to go for a hike up Ben Lomond. He didn’t know it at the time, but Rachel Hirst wasn’t far behind. “It was one of those rare sunny days in Scotland, so I thought I’d go for a walk before getting on with some work,” she says. When she got to the top, she found herself sitting near Andrew.
“I was wearing my rain trousers that day as it had been cloudy in the morning,” he says. “But, as a Canadian, I have always called them pants. I was talking to my friend about whether I would need to wear them on the way down.” Rachel found it hilarious. “I overheard him ask his friend if he should take his pants off and I burst out laughing. I told him, as a good English girl, I’d always been taught to keep my pants on.”
They soon got chatting and Rachel joined Andrew and his friend on a different route back down the mountain. “It’s funny, because up until that point I had been very happy being single. But walking down that hill, I knew there was something there,” she says. “I asked if I could stand him a pint when we got to the bottom and he found that really funny.” After drinks at the pub, they exchanged numbers. “She texted me afterwards to say how much she’d enjoyed herself. She never did make it to the office that afternoon.”
Due to other commitments, it took them three weeks to set up a date. “On the third week, my sister’s godmother was staying with me, but I couldn’t put him off again,” says Rachel. Instead, he joined them on a trip to The Hill House in Helensburgh. “I was on my best behaviour,” says Andrew. “Later on, she [the godmother] went home and we were able to get to know each other better. We pretty much became a couple that day.” The pair discovered they had lots in common and shared passions for hiking and travelling. At the end of the year, they went to Jordan together and took plenty of trips around the UK.
The following summer, Andrew began work in Belgium, returning to see Rachel in Glasgow every weekend. “Sometimes I would go and meet him in Amsterdam or Paris or Prague. We had lots of little adventures.” They moved in together in July 2007 and got married the following month in the Yorkshire Dales, where her family lived. Their first son was born in 2008. “He was a honeymoon baby, but he came early. I spent a lot of time reminding people he was early,” says Rachel, laughing. “Our second son was born in 2010.”
Rachel works as an ecologist and Andrew has continued his work in consulting, across the UK and abroad. He went to Australia for a project in 2016, which she says was “really hard”. One of the nice things about lockdown is that they are able to spend more time together.
Andrew says that, while Rachel is beautiful and intelligent, they also have shared values. “She has a strong sense of what it means to be a family, which I have always appreciated, especially when I am far away from my home,” he says. For Rachel, it is her partner’s relaxed nature that makes their relationship work so well. “He’s never fazed by anything and he’s always prepared. When I am busy flapping, he keeps me in check.”
When lockdown is over, the couple plan to spend more time travelling and exploring with their boys. “We’ve taken them to see Ben Lomond before, to see where we met,” says Rachel. “They call it our mountain. I love being able to tell them our story.”
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