Hugh was born in Irvine, Ayrshire in 1951 and brought up as the son of ex-pat parents in Japan and Canada as well as Scotland. After attending Dollar Academy from 1963 to 1969 as a boarder, he went to Strathclyde University from 1969 to 1972 to study economics. On graduating he joined JP Coats, now part of Coats Viyella, working for them ever since, most of the time overseas. He spent nearly ten years in São Paulo from 1977 to 1986.

Hugh was one of our youngest presidents and with youth he brought a great deal of energy, which was so essential in organising the events over the year. During Hugh’s presidency the Simpson Nisbet Trophy against the St George’s Society was won by the Scots after soccer, snooker, darts, bridge, squash, backgammon, golf, tennis, bowls and a few other sports competitions. After the scheduled events, a tie resulted, and the winner was decided by a very exciting game of table football held at SPAC between the two Presidents. Hugh duly won hands down!

As a member of the winning St Andrews team in the Brains of São Paulo in 1978, Hugh went forward to the individual competition but was pipped at the post.

In 1982, Scotland and Brazil faced each other yet again in the World Cup, this time in Spain, which provoked a spate of press interest in Scots and things Scottish - particularly after the Scots team lost to Brazil 4 - 1 in Seville. Goals were made by Zico, Oscar, Eder and Falcão, a formidable force. However, Scotland amazingly opened the scoring with David Narey striking from the long distance of 25 Yards after 18 minutes. The sweepstake proceeds went to charity. It was also a year in which the British Airways piper who came for the Banquet – a stag night, in those days - lost his pipes “somewhere” downtown, somewhere adjacent to Rua Nestor Pestana!

After leaving São Paulo, Hugh has worked in South Africa, Italy, the Philippines and Guayaquil, Ecuador. His wife, Suzy, is a native of Cornelio Procopio in the north of Parana and worked for Cacex for the Banco do Brazil. They have two daughters Ana Beatriz born in the Hospital Santa Catarina on Avenida Paulista and Alessandra born in Johannesburg. They say that Brazil is a very difficult country to leave and Hugh wouldn’t mind returning to his wife’s native land one day. They have a house in Londrina and return every year to keep up their Portuguese!