TRIBUTE: Sportsman, photographer, artist and poet - Alex Dingwall was a real one-off
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Alex Dingwall, who died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after a long battle with cancer, was a real one-off, writes Willie Morrison.
An excellent all-round sportsman, he was also highly intelligent, charismatic, a perceptive photographer, a fine artist and poet, while his booming voice and hearty manner concealed a sensitive soul.
Alex was born in Bonar Bridge to Dinah and Geordie Dingwall in 1941, the eighth of their family of 10.
He was brought up on the family croft at Achue, Spinningdale, and educated at Larachan Primary School and Dornoch Academy, where he remained for six years, staying along with over 40 other lads from remote communities at Earl’s Cross Hostel.
In that time, as we passed from boyhood into young manhood. Alex was the outstanding athlete of our schooldays, unusual for a hefty lad in that he was as good a high jumper as he was a shot putter – he came third in the shot in the Scottish Schools Championship in 1959.
His made his personal best high jump in that year – 1.82 metres (5 feet 10.5 inches) and his best shot putt of 15.45 metres (50ft 7in) while a student physical education teacher at Jordanhill College, Glasgow, in the early 1960s.
He was also a fine footballer, in the school teams from his earliest years, and he later played for Brora Rangers and Ross County, besides travelling the Highland Games circuit with great success for many summers thereafter.
He graduated from Jordanhill College as a PE teacher in 1962 and took up a post at Grangemouth.
Alex subsequently went on to teach at Denny, spent several years as head of PE at Kirkintilloch High School, but his heart was in the Highlands, and in 1980 he eventually found his real niche at Alness Academy, where in his time over two dozen youngsters from the school represented Scotland in sports ranging from athletics to hockey, basketball and cross-country.
A Peter Pan of athletics, who won the Commonwealth Veterans’ Pentathlon Championship at the age of 44, he followed up his earlier successes aged 49 by winning the over-45 British veterans’ shot putt championship in Glasgow.
He and his first wife Jean had three children, Kevin, Craig and Elaine and there are six grandchildren.
In retirement, after his second marriage to Senga Miller from Alness, also a PE teacher and head of faculty at Nairn Academy, he settled in Inverness.
He remained active in fostering youth athletics, having held the posts of president of the North of Scotland Schools Athletics Association and president of the Scottish Schools Athletics Association, while he was still, at the time of his death, chairman of the Schools International Athletics Board for the UK.
Over the years he and Senga took up mountaineering seriously and together conquered all but 19 of Scotland’s 282 Munros – mountains over 3,000 feet.
He and I sometimes drove up to Dornoch, where we wandered around old haunts, often met up with old acquaintances and reminisced about days past.
He and I were two of the seven lads in Earl’s Cross Hostel’s Room 7 on our first year at Dornoch Academy in 1959.
The regime was strict but reasonably tolerant, a slightly more lenient version of army life. We learned to make our own beds, brush our rooms and the floors of the hostel, wash dishes properly, peel tatties on Saturday mornings, polish our footwear and dress smartly for our daily trek to the school or the kirk.
Daft laddies as we were, we used to indulge in such stunts as climbing up the hostel’s iron drain pipes and over the roof, or hanging backwards over the top of the fire escape and the bannister above the main stair. That could have had serious consequences, but fortunately we survived without accident, and these episodes are now consigned to the world of happy memory.
The highlight of our week came on Saturday evening, when we were allowed to attend the local cinema show held by Dornoch Amenities Committee in the West Church Hall.
Alex’s funeral service on Monday 1st April, conducted by Rev John Chambers, took place appropriately in Dornoch Cathedral, where over 60 years ago, like many of the other hostel lads, he spent many hours at compulsory church services or Bible class sessions, often, I’m sure, like many of us, a little impatient to get out into the open air, though he remained quite a spiritual fellow to the end of his days.
He had originally attended the Free Church, but perhaps noticed that youngsters in the Cathedral enjoyed a few more perks, like shorter sermons, an annual Bible class social and some attractive girls, for Alex attracted quite a substantial fan club in his years at school.
At the service the congregation heard warm tributes from family members, friends, old school colleagues and former pupils worldwide, plus a fiddle tune, earlier composed in his honour.
Alex was interred to the sound of pipe music at Creich Cemetery, near his early home and only yards from where his parents and two brothers lie.
For over 20 years Alex lived only 15 minutes’ walk away from me and I’ll miss him greatly, especially his welcoming shout, his pawky sense of humour and his habit of twisting my arm to join him in a glass of his favourite malt – though I confess he didn’t have to twist too hard.
(Alexander Mackay Dingwall 20 November 1941 - 24 March 2019)
