We have lost someone truly irreplaceable. An absolute one of. An unsung hero. A legend

But more than that, Elaine has lost her lifelong partner, Keith & Julie, Karen & Brian and Andrew have lost a brother, Stewart, Cameron, Fraser, Ashley, Zack & Ella have lost an uncle, and Murray his great uncle, and a huge amount of those reading this have lost a friend.

Because anyone who ever met Colin, from the first moment, you wanted to be his friend – it was inevitable.

Colin walked into 63 Car Club and the Speyside during the planning stages of our first event in 1997, and it was like he had been there for years.

A sportsman of some repute around Huntly in his younger days, football, cricket, darts – he could turn his hand to most things but rallying had been a lifelong passion. Starting as a spectator and progressing to a Marshal just down the road at Gartly in the mid 70s, the draw of the sport just grew from there.

Through the the late 70s and 80s marshalling on Scottish & RAC rallies around the UK had him hooked, and the birth of the Speyside brought him to 63 and he threw himself into the rally, and the club, starting to compete in autotests and road rallies all over Scotland, as well as dipping his toe into navigating on stage rallies in the late 90s before going the whole hog and buying a car to drive stage rallies himself in 2001. The faithful Corolla was campaigned for 3 years, but that wasn’t the last of the action from the drivers seat.

But it was through marshalling and officiating on events that Colin is probably best known to most people – his knowledge and experience was much in demand around Scotland and beyond, and his boundless enthusiasm meant you knew he would always throw himself into any task, and it would always be done with a smile and a laugh. There was also usually a beer at the end of the day as well – purely to aid relaxation of course.

The desire to be involved, and the love of sport combined with the love of the craic meant that when the club started organising WRC event trips Colin & Elaine were some of the first to sign up, from Spain to Corsica to Sweden, and Colin just drew you in and you wanted to be in his company. We could literally fill a book with stories from these trips, although not all of them are for telling…

He was also getting more involved with the club as well, being a long standing member of the committee and organising autotests & road rallies in addition to competing on both, and always, always ensuring that the social side wasn’t forgotten. He was headhunted to perform key roles on other events, including one of the things he was most proud of – Chief Marshal for the IRC Rally of Scotland. He became a key stage commander for Mull Rally and Jim Clark Rally – we simply cannot list all of things he did, all driven by a love of the sport.

He also found time to help out servicing on events, with a particularly memorable trip to the isle of man, where he woke up in the bathroom of his hotel having slept through numerous alarms and phone calls, and ended up flying home as someone else – it just wouldn’t or couldn’t happen today but Colin took it in his stride and embraced the chaos as an adventure.

As most people head towards retirement they slow things down – but not Colin. The officials job offers kept coming, the road rallies whether Highland Car Club or 63 were still entered, the trips abroad for WRC events were still taken and he even found time for a new passion, as Elaine had introduced him to cruises which he loved. The pull of stage rallies, reignited by the creation of the Kinloss stages, returned and a Suzuki Ignis was purchased, resplendent in works colours thanks to Cameron, and another of his proudest achievements was winning his class in the 2024 Scottish Tarmac Championship.

Quite simply, Colin packed more into 68 years than anyone else would even think was possible. Everything attacked with the enthusiasm of a teenager. He was a force of nature. He was simply Colin .

When the news came on Saturday morning of his untimely passing it was devastating for all who knew him. It didn’t feel real. We were numb. We can only imagine how our sense of loss is magnified for Elaine, and for his family. We can only offer our heartfelt condolences and our support, both now and going forward. Our hearts break for you.

In time, the pain will ease, but the loss remains and we will all bet he better for knowing Colin, and having him as a friend. In his memory I think there is one simple phrase we should and remember, and live by going forwards

Be more Colin

Rest easy pal. Fly high