Born in Glasgow in 1911, Bob was educated at Allan Glens School until the family move to the South of England after his mother's death. It was intended he should become an engineer but at the time he was ready to start training, it was not easy to find an opening as an apprentice because of the recession and Bob, as always impatient to get on with things, took a job in a produce firm and came to Brazil in 1932 to work for them.

The company closed soon after and he decided he would stay on here rather. than go back to the UK. He built himself a career thereafter in the shipping and import/export business, working along the way for one of our late members Alistair Ian Grant in Santos; in Recife in the agency business; opening an export department fur Wilson Sons; and organising and running a subsidiary here for the Gibbs Williamson group before, finally, starting his own firm which involved him once more in shipping. He devoted all his energy and experience in the interest of the lines he represented, until a serious illness resulted in his death in 1964.

Our twenty-eighth President joined the Society In 1935 and his name first figures in our records as a member of the organising committee for the 1946 and 1947 Banquets after the War. He later served as Secretary in 1956 and 1957, becoming President the following year and working ex-oficio on the Committee in 1959. Bob’s willingness to help successive Committees at times of shortage of our national brew, with generous supplies of whisky at special prices, was greatly appreciated and the supply of white heather was another of Bob's specialities. He was a forthright man with very positive ideas, and at meetings. these were expressed in such a manner that they often jolted the laggards into activity. He had a cheery disposition withal, and a fund of good stories in addition to a host of British and Brazilian friends in the business world in many parts of the country. His other interest, outside his work and his family was the British Chamber of Commerce, on whose Council he served.

Bob is survived by a widow and three daughters