A community stalwart in Angus has been revealed as the man who lost his life in a tragic car accident on Friday afternoon.
Alastair Cochrane-Dyet, of Kirriemuir, died after his Skoda collided with a Seat while travelling southbound on the A90 near the Petterden slip road.
The 85-year-old was a well-known figure in Tayside, serving as a councillor in Dundee and being involved in several community groups after a career in the Merchant Navy and then the British Colonial Police took him all over the world.
Former Angus Provost Ruth Leslie Melville paid tribute to Mr Cochrane-Dyet, describing him as an “amazing chap”.
He was a former chairman of Angus Transport Forum, vice-chairman of Age Concern Angus, a member of Dundee Samaritans, the Friends of Stracathro fundraising group and Angus CAB.
Mr Cochrane-Dyet was also known in Forfar for volunteering at the Red Cross shop in East High Street three times a week.
He was a Conservative councillor in Dundee in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His daughter Fiona Walthall, who lives in Broughty Ferry and works as a PE teacher at Monifieth High School, said: “He lived a very interesting life and in his retirement threw himself into work for the community.
“Even on his last day, on Friday, he was working for the Red Cross and had travelled to the SSPCA unit at Petterden to give them newspapers for their animal bedding.
“He was a very kind man.”
Mr Cochrane-Dyet was born in Colchester but moved to Perthshire as a child and attended Glenalmond College and McLaren High School in Callander.
After school he joined the Merchant Navy in 1944, serving as an officer cadet during the Second World War and taking part in a number of convoys across the Atlantic Ocean from Britain to Canada.
After the war, he carried out his national service with the army, stationed in Greece.
He had a short career in banking in London and Cornwall before joining the British Colonial Police in 1950.
He was first stationed in Malaya (now Malaysia), then Somaliland (an autonomous region of Somalia) and finally Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
“In Malaysia he met my mother, Beryl, who was in Malaya as a teacher,” Fiona recalled. “They were married in Ipoh in Malaya in 1956.
“Dad was then promoted to a position in Somaliland, where his beat was the size of Wales.
“He had one sergeant major and six Somali police constables and their main task was trying to stop smuggling and keeping the peace between the tribes.
“In Tanganyika he was the Queen’s representative at the Independence Day parade when the Union’s flag was lowered for the last time in the town of Mbeya.”
Mr Cochrane-Dyet returned to Britain in 1964 with his young family Fiona and younger brother Angus and had a career as a chief trading officer for Stewarts & Lloyds steel company in the Midlands and then Glasgow.
He was employed by Robb Caledon Shipbuilding in Dundee and finally by British Shipbuilding Headquarters in Tyneside from 1976 until his retirement in 1986.
The couple moved back to Scotland, buying the Old Manse at Memus.
After the death of his wife in 2002, Mr Cochrane-Dyet moved to a house in Kirriemuir and just before Christmas moved into a sheltered housing unit in the town.
He is survived by his two children and one granddaughter.