Sad News Again...

The losses of club stalwart Hugh Docherty and Honorary President Harry Ewing have been added to by the death of John Hopton on 15/7/07, the immediate Past President of our club. John has been battling with cancer for over a year now and finally succumbed to the illness. John was always upbeat about his capability to win his fight against the disease unfortunately the odds were stacked against him. John was a member of the club for 25 years and during that time he was always researching the life and works of Burns to increase his knowledge and understanding of the Bard. He missed very few opportunities to pass this new found knowledge onto the members of the club thereby giving us all extra insight into what made Burns special. I suppose his trademark song was ‘Where Helen lies’ which he sang with such passion at club meetings and suppers. He also played a huge role in the concert party participating not only as a singer but also giving immortal memories and being a mainstay in the Ploughman and the Jolly Beggars. His contribution to all that made the Bowhill Peoples Burns Club special will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with Christine and the rest of his family at this sad time.

Sad News

It is with further regret we report the passing yesterday(saturday) morning of Lord Ewing of Kirkford - Harry Ewing - Honorary President of our club. Harry has been a long time supporter of BPBC and attended many or our annual suppers. He has delivered two Immortal Memories; in 1990 and 2000 and was always an enthusiastic and participative top-table guest. Our thoughts and very best wishes are with Margaret, his wife and the rest of the family, at this very sad time.

 

 
Report on Hugh's Funeral by DJ MacDonald.

It is with great sadness that we in the club are coming to terms with the loss of our former president Hugh Docherty. Hugh was a club member for over 40 years, a committee member for over 30 years, the vice president for 5 years and of course club president for 11 years. The word stalwart hardly does justice to his contribution to the wellbeing of his beloved club. He was a recruiting sergeant without peer introducing so many to the club and encouraging them to come to the meetings, socials and other functions.

His presidency was a time of great activity within the club and Hugh was present at every event. He was a prominent member of the group who attended the Burns Federation conferences making friends from all over the world.

He was no slouch when it came to participating in the supper programme where he would render songs such as McPhersons Farewell and Jessie or recite The Lass that made the bed for me and Death and Doctor Hornbook. His contributions to the Concert Party were much more than just singing and reciting when he would give the Immortal Memory and the Toast to the Lassies as he added items to his repertoire.

All in all he was without doubt one of the finest members and men that we in the club have had the privilege to know he will be great loss to the Bowhill Peoples Burns Club.
 
Our thoughts are with Jessie and the rest of the family at this sad time.
 

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