Death of former Falkirk Herald employee David Dalgleish, aged 99

A devoted family man, his other loves were Falkirk FC and horse racing.

Until his death this week, he was the oldest former Falkirk Herald employee having started with the company in its then High Street offices in 1936.

He was delighted to be making the headlines himself in August 2019 when this paper marked his 92nd season of following his beloved Bairns with photographs and recollections of his nine decades as a supporter.

David was born on May 19, 1922, the only child of David and Hilda Dalgleish.

His father worked in the office at Grahamston Iron Foundry, while his mother was originally from Sunderland.

The family lived in Ladysmill with David attending Victoria Primary and then Falkirk Technical School.

When he left school in 1936, aged 14, jobs were hard to come by but thankfully through family connections he was taken on as an office boy with F. Johnston & Co Ltd at their premises on Falkirk’s High Street, opposite the landmark Steeple.

He was later promoted to clerk before joining the Army Dental Corps in November 1941 as an orderly and clerk.

His basic training took place at Edinburgh Castle and he was later stationed around the country looking after the troops’ dental health.

He was later sent to India with spells in Delhi and Calcutta before being demobbed when he returned to his role with The Falkirk Herald.

David met his future wife Evelyn at the Plaza dance hall in Stirling and the couple married on June 16, 1952.

Five years later they welcomed their only child Roy with the family moving to Bantaskine where David continued to live until his death.

By this time David was the advertising manager at The Falkirk Herald before he became the cashier and later the assistant company secretary, eventually retiring in 1982.

Sadly Evelyn died in 1984.

Four years later while on holiday, he met Lanarkshire schoolteacher Moira and the couple married the following year.

David’s love of football began aged five, when his father took him to Brockville. He later said the atmosphere and matchday experience captured his imagination – and he was hooked.

In more recent years, he attended with Roy, 63 and grandsons Ewan, 33, and Gordon, 30, and was delighted to be considered one of the club’s oldest season ticket holders.

There will be few attending today’s matches who will remember watching the club’s all-time record goalscorer Kenny Dawson in action back in the 1930s.

Two years ago David recalled: “Kenny was my all-time favourite player. He was a left winger in that wonderful 1935-36 team, which won the old Second Division by a park length, scoring 132 goals – 39 of which were scored by Kenny.

“I have seen many memorable games in my time but the 1957 Scottish Cup final tops the lot. The game itself and the scenes in the town when the cup was paraded were fantastic. The streets were mobbed.”

His other interest was horse racing and one former colleague remembers him dashing out of the office and up Wooer Street to the bookmakers, no betting apps in those days.

In the last few years David has had some periods of ill health and was in Forth Valley Hospital when he died on Monday, January 24 – 38 years to the day since first wife Evelyn died.

Funeral details have still to be announced.

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