Born: 11 April, 1912, in Tongue, Sutherland. Died: 28 February, 2008, in Bedford, aged 95. JOHN L Coghill was a former chief architect of Glenrothes, where he lived for many years.
Born in the Manse in Tongue, Sutherland
in 1912, where his grandfather David Lundie was the minister, John was the younger son of Sinclair Coghill (late of Dunrobin and Thurso) and Lamont (Tottie) Lundie.
Brought up in Dunrobin after his father became a cashier with the Sutherland Estates, John attended Golspie Primary and Senior Secondary Schools and then went straight into Mr Horn's architect's office in Golspie before going on to take his degree at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen.
Following several years' war service in India with the Royal Engineers, where he reached the rank of captain, John joined the staff of Fife County Council in Kirkcaldy before moving to Glenrothes in the formative years of the New Town, of which he eventually became chief architect.
It was there that, well into his fifties, this apparently confirmed bachelor met and married his secretary's daughter, Adelaide McGregor, a happy union which produced his daughter, Alison, and son, David.
A man of wide and varied interests – he played football at school and in the Boys' Brigade and golf for most of his life (he was a member at Ladybank and former captain of Glenrothes) – he was also a founder member of Glenrothes Art Club and a former toastmaster.
A close friend of the family remembers his enlivening the annual Golspie fancy dress parades of the 1950s with his imaginative themes, costumes and decorated buggies.
On the premature death of Adelaide from cancer in 1998, John, at an age when most men would have just given up, moved south to Bedford to fulfil a long-cherished dream of serving the Panacea Society, a body he had first been attracted to while a student in Aberdeen.
He became its treasurer, a post he held until his death.
He is survived by his son, daughter and grandchildren, who brought him particular joy in his final years.
The full article contains 347 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
