Former solicitor and honorary sheriff Dennis Collins has passed away at the age of 87.
Mr Collins, who was born and raised in Dundee, graduated from St Andrews University and served his apprenticeship with legal firm Gray, Robertson & Wilkie, before becoming a partner in firms Pollock & Smith, Carlton Gilruth and finally Blackadders.
He became Dean of the Faculty of Procurators and Solicitors in Dundee in 1988, serving in the role until 1990 and was the last Dean to be honoured by being appointed an honorary sheriff.
He was also a lecturer in Scots Law at St Andrews University and subsequently Dundee University from 1960 to 1979.
He was a Writer to the Signet and, for twenty years from 1976, the Agent Consulaire for France.
A member of the Guildry, he was an Assessor to the Lord Dean of Guild for more than 20 years and during that time successively Clerk and Archivist to the Guildry.
For more than a century his family belonged to Ward Chapel, now Dundee Congregational Church, serving as church treasurer from 1966.
Mr Collins was joint chairman of Lord Armitstead’s Dundee Trust, responsible for the annual distribution of its income to Dundee charities and schools.
For more than 25 years he was honorary secretary of the Dundee Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children until it became part of Children 1st.
A keen family man, Mr Collins had many interests including golf, angling and gardening, as well as a finely honed interest in stamp collecting.
Mr Collins was a member of Dundee and District Philatelic Society for more than seventy years, a fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of London and a member of several specialist societies, giving displays from his collections throughout Scotland and in London.
He is survived by his wife, Elspeth, to whom he had been married for fifty five years, their daughter, son and four grandchildren.
