Bill MacDougall, Golspie
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Bill always said no one could have better neighbours, no one could have better friends. And as Alasdair said in his touching tribute at the funeral, no one could have had a better father.
Although Bill did most of his own shopping, Alasdair visited him virtually every weekend and helped out a little. Bill was always hugely grateful for any assistance, whether from his son or from friends and neighbours in the village. Too numerous to mention all by name, they included especially Robert and Alex Beaton and the two neighbours who lived closest to him, the Jamiesons and the MacQuillans. The Jamiesons were still on holiday at the time of the funeral, but Alasdair received a very nice e-mail of condolence from them. The MacQuillans, who’d also been away at the time of his death, were back in time for the funeral.
Bill also had a specially adapted car, which enabled him to do most of his shopping round the village. Only occasionally did he crash it, by reversing into the car park wall, and he even enjoyed occasional trips to Rogart for petrol.
The television becomes a close friend in such circumstances, and Iona’s husband Cameron had the bright idea of setting him up with a satellite dish. He gratefully accepted, but initially was reluctant to move away from his favoured analogue stations. Then his grandson Craig pinched his indoor aerial for the TV in the other room (when he was "studying") and insisted that Grandpa learned the digital stations. He took to it like a duck to water, especially Sky News. Alasdair never got round to buying him Sky Sports, not being sure how long he’d last in the house on his own. He should have known better, as he lasted more than five further years.
A hugely active person most of his life, not being able to continue like that in his latter years would have frustrated and severely depressed most people, but not Bill. He kept smiling through two huge operations seven and eight years ago, which only his fantastic spirit got him through. If that wasn’t bad enough, the following year he had to have his right leg partially amputated. It didn’t matter, he kept smiling. He then had to cope with the wholly unexpected and sudden loss of his daughter Iona, followed not long afterwards by the death of his wife Helen. Still he kept smiling, his glass always being half full.
Five years later, in 1971, the caravan was back in France again. This time they’d been invited to a wedding by a family that Helen had befriended in her days as a student French teacher. The reception was in a huge beautiful house, and a sumptuous meal had been provided. Then Bill spotted lots of dirty plates and dishes that clearly needed washing – so he took it upon himself to don an apron and get stuck in. The chauvinistic French were gobsmacked – they’d never seen a man do such work himself, let alone voluntarily!
They arrived in Paris on the day England won the World Cup, and on seeing a British car the locals waved wildly and applauded enthusiastically – adulation that Bill was delighted to accept. Some Scots of course would have been resentful that England had won, but Bill wasn’t like that – besides, the Germans had been beaten!
Bill and Helen were also great adventurers and travellers, especially in their caravan, and when the children were young they took them to all sorts of weird and wonderful places. They were particularly fond of France, and in 1966 the caravan was towed all the way there from Banff.
He was a great gardener, for example, and being from Oban he was very good at pottering about in boats, and in his youth he was a formidable shinty player. Upon marrying into a golfing family he thought he’d better give that a go too, playing left-handed, naturally, as shinty players tend to do. He became pretty good, his handicap being as low as five at one point. He very much enjoyed playing both at Golspie and Dornoch, both clubs bestowing honorary life membership upon him.
In recent years it’s been easy to forget that for the first 75 years of his life Bill had scarcely a day’s illness. In his entire teaching career only once did he miss a single day, and that was relatively late on when he hurt his Achilles’ tendon playing badminton. Alasdair didn’t know his dad played badminton, but it should have come as no surprise for Bill lived a very active life.
He loved Dornoch and Dornoch Academy, but even more so Golspie where he lived happily for the remaining 44 years of his life. He and his late wife Helen were involved in numerous local activities, including the church.
They lived very happily in Banff for 10 years, during which time Alasdair was born in 1960 and Iona in 1962. On the sudden death of Helen’s mother in Golspie in 1966, the family decided to relocate to Golspie to look after Helen’s father, Bert. Bill therefore sought the next teaching job that became available in Sutherland, and in 1967 became a maths teacher at Dornoch Academy, where he eventually rose to become rector and where he stayed until his retirement in 1988.
After the war he went to Glasgow University where, through the university Gaelic society, he met Helen Sinclair from Golspie. They were also both regular attenders at the Wellington Chuch of Scotland in University Avenue. Romanced blossomed and they both initially had teaching jobs in Glasgow, but after their marriage in 1957 Bill accepted a job in Banff – because a house came with that!
Bill had a very happy childhood and, with war breaking out when he was 14, he finished his schooling in Oban before serving in the forces. Before his 20th birthday he’d served in India, Algeria and closer to home in Blackpool, where his sergeant was a certain Stanley Matthews.
All his siblings predeceased him, but alive and well and present at the funeral in Fountain Road Church Hall on Saturday 21st May were his sister-in law Ann and his nephew Colin with his family, along with Bill’s son Alasdair, his wife Dawn and children Craig and Catriona.
Bill was born in 1925, the youngest of a family of four from Oban.
