OBITUARY: Former journalist Terry Duncan was proud of his Tain connections and has left behind a fine legacy
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Following the sad passing of former Tain man, Terry Duncan, his family and friends have gathered for a burial of ashes service at the town’s St Duthus Cemetery.
Journalist Terry – elder son of the much respected Tain couple, the late Florrie and Ronnie Duncan – was a regular contributor to the letters page of the Ross-shire Journal.
A wartime baby, Terry was born in Cornwall when dad, Ronnie, was stationed at RAF St Mawgan, in Newquay. After the war the family moved back to Tain, where Terry and brother, the late Rodney and sisters Jean and Rhona, were brought up.
On leaving Tain Royal Academy, Terry was sent to Dundee College to learn electrical engineering. It was during this chapter of his life when, having joined the city’s High Kirk Youth Club, he became great friends with the Rev Bill Abernethy and the Rev Jim Powrie. It was a friendship that would last a lifetime. The three friends enjoyed many adventures together, including climbing Buachaille Etive Mòr, a mountain known to climbers as The Buachaille.
Terry also particularly enjoyed walking with friends through the Lairig Ghru. Whilst not for the feint hearted, the route through the heart of the Cairngorms, which includes some of Scotland’s most wild and stunning scenery.
Terry’s mentor, his uncle John Ross, known as Coogan, was a sports reporter for a Leicester newspaper. It wasn’t long before Terry, with Coogan’s help, was working as a junior reporter at the Leicester News Agency. Based in Stamford, he covered all news and sport in the area and became friends with the Marquis of Exeter when he covered the Burghley House Horse Trials.
On a visit back home to the Highlands, Terry was out with his camera when he came upon a road accident in Muir of Ord. A car had taken a sharp bend too quickly and landed on the low roof of a cottage. Too good an opportunity to miss, Terry snapped the scene and sent the photo to the Daily Express. He was subsequently offered a job as a reporter in the newspaper’s Inverness branch office and treasured the memories of his years there and the friends he made.
It was whilst working as a journalist, amidst a flurry of activity surrounding one of The Queen’s royal visits to the Highlands, when Terry first encountered Rena. At the time, Rena was also working as a reporter for The Daily Record. As fate would have it, during a subsequent trip to Arran, their paths crossed again and the couple married a year later.
Terry enjoyed many happy years at the Express’s district office in Greenock. When the newspaper ceased printing in Scotland and Terry was made redundant, he and Rena bought property in Portmahomack. It coincided with him being offered a job as Steward at Tain Golf Club.
Even though golf was never Terry’s favourite pastime, his dad, Ronnie, loved his golf. It’s almost 50 years since and he and his best friend, local barber, Neil Robertson, established the TOGS – Tain Occasional Golfing Society. The TOGS have played at more than 100 courses, including Carnoustie, Gleneagles, Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Prestwick, Royal Aberdeen and ones overseas.
But Terry’s heart was still in journalism and when he was offered a job as senior reporter on the Bridlington Free Press the family moved to Yorkshire, where he later set up a successful freelance news agency working for all national newspapers, radio and TV. His legacy is significant. Besides everything he achieved in his professional life, he leaves behind a family of successful individuals of whom he was incredibly proud. He is survived by his wife, Rena, children Cameron, Kirsti and Craig and grandchildren Katie, Lucy, Isla and Alexander.
