Catherine Coffey, who had a long career as a teacher at St Margaret’s Primary School, Dundee, has died aged 96.
She was raised on the banks of Loch Tay and taught in Africa before settling in Dundee with her husband, Denis, who taught maths at Morgan Academy.
When Denis died aged just 53, Catherine went back to work, teaching at St Margaret’s from the early 1970s until 1991.
A lover of poetry, over many years her pupils recorded success in Burns Federation competitions.
Catherine McLaren, known as Cath, was born at Pier View, Fearnan, in August 1926.
Her father, Duncan, was the local tailor, working from a studio attached to the house and her mother, Mary, ran the home.
Mary had to leave school at 13, and although the family was financially very poor, she instilled a desire and determination in her children to make the most of opportunities and achieve what they wanted from life.
Cath was the second oldest of four. Her older sister Jean nursed in Japan during the Korean War and latterly worked at the Cottage Hospital in Aberfeldy.
Her brother Alistair was head of maths and deputy head at Morgan Academy. Her youngest brother, Duncan, fought in the jungle during the Malayan War and returned to Fearnan, working with the Forestry Commission.
Cath attended Fearnan Primary and Breadalbane Secondary School in Aberfeldy.
Wartime Perthshire
She had an idyllic childhood on the loch side, working in the local hotel, Tigh-An-Loan, and, when older, going to Kenmore where she danced with Polish soldiers from the military hospital at Taymouth Castle during the Second World War.
Cath studied teaching at Moray House in Edinburgh, graduated in 1948 and taught in Aberfeldy, Perth and Bridge of Allan before embarking on an African adventure.
She spent many happy years in Harare, Bulawayo and Plumtree in Zimbabwe before a spell in Ghana.
Then, between 1963 and 1966 she taught in Sydney, Australia, and at Morgan Street Primary School in Broken Hill in the Outback of New South Wales.
Towards the end of the 1960s she returned to Africa via Scotland to marry her future husband, Denis Coffey, who she had met in Zimbabwe.
Denis originally came from County Tipperary and an equally impoverished background.
He had been educated by the Christian Brothers in a monastery in Kilburn, North West London, and after graduating in physics from Imperial Collage London, he too became a teacher.
Shortly after marrying, and very unexpectedly as they were both older by now, Cath fell pregnant with their daughter, Jean Marie.
They were teaching out in the bush so decided to come back to Scotland to have the baby and settle.
Tragically, only two and half years later Denis died suddenly and Cath had to get back to work as soon as possible so joined the staff of St Margaret’s.
Her daughter, Jean Marie said: “It was a school she loved and where she worked with many wonderful teachers, headteachers and pupils. She adored her extended family, her garden and attended Our Lady of Good Counsel in Broughty Ferry for nearly 50 years.
“After so long living in the area, she had many good friends and neighbours. Her heart though was always in Fearnan, the banks of the loch and the hills and mountains surrounding it.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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