A WELL-KNOWN Kirriemuir man, whose dedication to the local Scouting movement won him the MBE, has died after a long and courageous battle with illness.
A native of Dundee, Mr Lyndsay Nairn Grewar, moved to Angus at an early age and remained in the county to pursue a successful professional career in the textile industry as well as a diverse range of personal interests including his lifelong Scouting
involvement.
He was brought up in Little Brechin and Aberlemno and schooled at Brechin High School before starting out in a career as a mechanic at Joe Munro's garage in Kirriemuir.
Mr Grewar had no formal mechanical training but possessed a natural flair in the field which would carry him to one of the top positions with Kirriemuir's largest employers in a 40-year career.
He initially took up a post as a loom tenter with textile firm J. & D. Wilkie, maintaining the machinery in the firm's Bellie's Brae factory before rising from the shop floor to the position of works manager from which he retired in 1998.
Scouting and photography were two enduring passions throughout his life, the first sparked when he enlisted as a boy at Menmuir in 1947 and was taken under the wing of Jock Neish, whose name remains synonymous with the movement in Angus.
Mr Grewar became involved with Kirrie Scouts in the late 1950s and for a quarter of a century from the mid-1970s was group Scout leader, building up the local association from a single Cub pack and Scout troop to boast Venture Scouts, two Beaver colonies and an extra Cub pack.
He retired from the post in 2001, when he was presented with Scouting's highest award, the Silver Wolf, and that was followed with the award of the MBE in 2003 for services to the organisation.
Mr Grewar, who also served four years with the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment in Egypt, Suez and Cyprus, was a keen photographer and during his life built up an extensive collection of work, including a detailed record of the changing face of Kirriemuir.
He put that skill and knowledge to good community use as an avid member of the Friends of Kirrie's Gateway to the Glens Museum and was co-author of Kirrie Life, a book released as part of the town's millennium programme.
Mr Grewar was also proud to be elected as president of the Clan Grewar Society a few years ago, and last year was given the honour of being appointed a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Mr Grewar is survived by his wife, Nancy, who he married in 1960, and children Lorna, Shelagh and Michael.
