Death of former Falkirk solicitor

Robert Louis Stirling, but better known as Steve Stirling, was a well known solicitor, serving the Bairns of Falkirk for nearly 50 years.
Solicitor Steve StirlingSolicitor Steve Stirling
Solicitor Steve Stirling

After completing his apprenticeship in Glasgow and then working in the Town Clerk’s Office in Stirling, he began working in Falkirk. He worked at A & J C Allan & Co in Newmarket Street from 1967 to 1977.

In 1977 he set up his own firm, Stirling & Co, next to the Steeple on the High Street, which he ran until 2013.

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He was a typical general practitioner, offering a broad range of legal services.

He appeared frequently in Falkirk sheriff court representing clients, until shortly before he retired. He was a Former Dean of the Falkirk and District Faculty of Solicitors.

He found acting for clients very fulfilling, andenjoyed helping people, regularly giving up his free time to provide legal advice at the Citizens Advice Bureau and often acting for women who had experienced domestic abuse.

He was popular with his clients, sometimes acting for subsequent generations of the one family.

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He was well known about the town and could often be seen walking down the High Street in Falkirk at lunch time.

On retiring in 2013 he said that he found the Bairns, not just clients, to be friendly and down to earth, and that he was retiring reluctantly.

Steve Stirling was born in Glasgow on June 2,1940. When his father was called up to serve in the war, his mother took him to Dumbarton to live with her family. He returned to Glasgow to attend the local primary school and then Hutchesons’ Boys’ Grammar School. He enjoyed his school years, succeeding academically as well as obtaining his Blues for rugby and playing the pipes in the Boys’ Brigade.

He went to Glasgow University where he obtained an Honours Degree in Latin and Ancient Greek, and then an LLB. While he was a student, he met Dorothy Jean Gardner, then a librarian in the university library, and they married in 1963. Shortly after that they moved to Stirling so that he could take up employment and they could start a family.

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Their children, Alison, Jane and Jeremy, were born over the next few years.

Steve enjoyed the outdoors going on frequent walks with a succession of children, grandchildren and dogs to Cambusbarron woods, Sauchie Craig, North Third, the River Forth and the Hillfoots glens. His holidays were spent in the family cottage in Badachro, Wester Ross, where he climbed hills, went out in his rowing boat, walked on the beaches, and swam in the sea, lochs and rivers.

He was a great reader and story teller. His favourite book remained Homer’s Iliad, from his days studying Latin and Greek. He used to tell his children simplified stories from the classics, in particular The Odyssey, and also made up his own stories to entertain them.

Steve was a man of integrity: he was honest, conscientious and kind He also had a great sense of humour and so he was a lot of fun.

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Following a stroke in late 2019 he moved to Randolph Hill Nursing Home in Dunblane, where he passed away peacefully on December 8, 2020. He is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren Paul, Max and Amber.

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