My mother was born Maude Coghill Dunn, her mother Sarah McPherson Coghill being a daughter of George Coghill, b. Caithness, lived in Glasgow. Maude corresponded with Ronald, and greatly enjoyed his long letters. She and I visited Ronald at Bridge of Allan in May 1990 (from new Zealand) and with Ronald's onset of blindness the correspondence lapsed, and my wife and I were sorry to learn of his deather when we called by in July 2011.

I will miss our phone calls Uncle Ronnie. You had a unique sense of humour and always made me laugh. Love Mellissa Mathe (Coghill).

Ronald Francis Coghill, Ronald’s personal motto is : Dum vivo cano : While I live, I sing He was the second son of James Francis Coghill and Helen Milne Calder & born Leith – (14 Dalmeny Street), 31st July 1929. All Ronald’s grandparents were born in the county of Caithness, his parents having met within the Caithness community in Leith; a fact that was to become increasing important to Ronald in later life as we shall hear. He had and older brother Ian, a younger brother Kenneth and two lovely sisters Marjory & Joyce. He was Educated at Lorne Street primary School, Leith and Bridgend primary school near Linlithgow where he was evacuated during the war becoming Dux boy in 1940. During this time he developed further glowing childhood memories and forged a strong and lasting relationship with the farming family of Mr & Mrs Adam that would last the rest of Ronald’s life. From 1941 to 1944 he attended Bellevue technical College, Edinburgh. 1944 to 1950 saw him serving an apprenticeship with George Brown & Sons Engineering, at the Shore, Leith in marine & general engineering with particular reference to ship repair. From 1950 to 1955, in the British Merchant service he rose from 10th to 2nd Engineer in charge of a watch at sea. He gained a 2nd class Diesel Certificate and a 1st Class (combined) Steam & Diesel Certificate of competency. His final qualifications also included Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineers, MR Inst N.A F.Inst P. He saw service on the New Zealand Sapphire Company Ltd line, General Steam Navigation Company Ltd & the Currie line Ltd. From 1955 – 1961 he filled three managerial positions overseeing 50-100 staff with the Anglo Swedish Welding Co Ltd, Munro & Miller Ltd and Brunton’s wire works in Musselburgh involved in steel strip, airfoil section autolath parts, pipework, turbine blading and general engineering. Between 1961 to 1965 he was Chief Marine Engineer in Brown Group’s shipyards at Colombo, in beautiful and at that time very peaceful Ceylon. These were Halcyon days for Ronald and he would often reminisce that his drive to work around the island’s coast road was so beautiful and he felt so joyful that he remembered saying to himself “This is just so perfect, it cannot last”. Sure enough in the early 60’s there were political changes at the peak of the cold war and under the world’s first woman prime minister led to strengthening Sri Lankan ties with the USSR and later China and the former colonial residents were less welcome. However once again Ronald’s wonderful affability led to friendships with several Sri Lankan nationals that would last for the rest of his life. 1966 -1975 saw Ronald back in the UK once again showing his resourcefulness and adaptability as a Senior Estimator for the civil engineers George Wimpey & Co based in West London but engaged in international projects from aluminium smelters in the UK & Bahrain to hydrocarbon exploitation in Caribbean and middle-east. This experience with the oil industry put Ronald in an excellent position to contribute to the developments in the North Sea and from 1974 until his retirement at 60 in 1989 in a progression of project transfers & company take-overs involving Burmah Oil, Chevron, British National Oil Corporation, Britoil & BP he acted as Supervising Estimating Engineer in offshore projects including Forties / Ninian / Thistle / Beatrice fields and the near-shore and on-shore construction sites at Sullum Voe, Nigg and St Fergus. His main task was the evaluation of prospects & projects and act as a source of experience & expertise in the costing of all these massive undertakings. I have no doubt that Ronald provided BP with sterling service but he still had time to sneak in a bit of genealogy on the side. His ever helpful personal assistants Eleanor Wilson & Christine McGowan were often drafted into helping so that when the work was being planned one of them would have to ask “Well what’s it to be today Ronald, Oil or Coghills? Christine has continued to assist Ronald over the years of retirement, most notably helping him cope with his enormous Christmas card list. What a fantastically varied and accomplished career! There can be no doubt as to Ronald’s contribution to the world of large scale engineering. But was there more to the man? Emphatically YES. From an early age Ronald was passionate about classical music and most particularly about classical and popular opera. He was blessed with a golden tenor voice which he put to good use at every opportunity. Indeed he was sufficiently talented in this regard that a career as a professional opera singer was very much on the cards when he was a youth. Indeed his very close and permanent friend Graeme McIntosh, an excellent baritone opted for professional singing, eventually moving to Australia. However once again distance was never an obstacle to the maintenance of a firm and much valued friendship for well over half a century. Leaving the stage was a hard decision for Ronald however, and one that may have been occasionally regretted but he took the more traditional path for a Scotsman - into heavy engineering. Operatic performance was avidly engaged in an amateur & semi-professional basis for many years with the apogee in Ceylon and he sang with the Ceylon National Opera Company including many duets with his very dear friend Lorraine Abusacera. In more recent years Ronald has continued to sing to friends, relatives, the bathroom mirror and latterly was rewarded by a joyous reception from the nurses at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital. The many trips to Northern Scotland occasioned by his visits to the drilling platform construction yards led to an intensification of Ronald’s interest in the origin of the Coghill family in the county of Caithness. This interest grew into an obsession. And the obsession combined with Ronald’s keen mind and diligent nature lead to one of the best researched series of genealogical documents ever produced and the restoration of his great grandfather’s croft house at Tain in Olrig. His genealogical contacts lead to an ever increasing circle of friends and distant relatives all over the world that afforded Ronald memorable trips to Australia, Canada and Alaska all strongholds of émigré Coghills. By way of return there were frequent visit from overseas to the Mecca of Coghill genealogy at Chalton Road. A prominent trait in Ronald’s character was a feigned narcissism which he used relentlessly to amuse others. Moira Coghill, Ron’s sister-in-law remembers that, in their youth, Ron was always the most dapper of all the boys. In view of Ron’s preoccupation with sartorial perfection you can imagine his chagrin when after travelling for a very long time to Japan for a business meeting and arriving quite exhausted, he was met by a group of his hosts who whisked him straight out to a beautiful restaurant for dinner. Everyone took off their shoes and when Ron followed suit, he was very embarrassed to find a big hole in his stocking. As well as invariably conferring immeasurable intelligence, the Coghill genes are occasionally also expressed by incomparable good looks. As you will be reminded by the photographs on the Order of Service, Ronald was a prime example – “as I believe you all were about to say”! His handsome countenance and limitless charm made Ronald particularly attractive to the ladies and in 1966 Ronald had the good fortune to marry a very beautiful woman of German extraction, Dietlinde Barth Findlay. This good fortune was enhanced by the presence of a gorgeous five year old girl, Nikki, Linde’s daughter from her previous marriage. In 1967 the family was blessed with a son – Kevin whom, it soon became apparent, also had inherited his father’s and mother’s good looks. Unfortunately, and to the astonishment and dismay of the whole family, in 1984, Ronald made the decision to live alone for the remainder of his life and to devote all his time to genealogy and music. And so it was to be. It was Ronald’s intention to spend his relatively solitary retirement in his beloved Caithness but various health problems that had been heralded at the age of 45 by a life-threatening subarachnoid haemorrhage and the development of maturity onset diabetes, meant that he was obliged to retain his home in Bridge of Allan in order to be near various clinical services. However he continued to make many trips North initially in his 5 litre V12 Jaguar and latterly with his sister Marjory and her husband Stanley or his nephew Stuart. In Caithness he had many friends and relatives who always delighted at the “sound of tom toms” as Ronald crossed the Ord of Caithness and prepared their highland welcomes for Ronald and his travelling companions. Notably James and son David Coghill, Cissy & George Coghill and their sibs & sons. Also Cousin Sheila and her husband Andy who have more recently returned to the Northern Homeland from Crieff. The journey was invariably interrupted in North Kessock for tea & scones with cousin Alan Coghill only very recently deceased, and his lovely Western Isles wife - Kate. Gradually spending more time in Bridge of Allan and less in Caithness, Ronald was never short of company, as well as the regular overseas visitors it was always “open house” to his wonderfully supportive neighbours Judith & Callum upstairs, Gloria, Alison & Ian to the left and Linda & Andy to the right. The family would like to extend a particular thank you to Helen Bolton who provided enormous support to Ronald over his increasingly difficult last two years. There is not a shadow of doubt that without her, Ronald would not have survived as long as he did with the dependant life that he valued so much in his own home. What were the qualities of the man? Ronald was “achievement driven” & highly self motivated, he coped well in complex and stressful situations, he was creative and forward thinking, productive and meticulous. His communication skills were excellent and he possessed an enormous vocabulary which he used to effect verbally and in writing. He was totally reliable and with a keen sense of morality and probity. To most people his most obvious qualities were his irrepressible good cheer, his need to entertain others at all times and to be the centre of their attention. This was with him to the very end. At Forth Valley Royal Hospital, in the evening of Saturday the March 5th, having recently become increasingly weak, drowsy and confused Ronald suddenly seemed to perk up. He sat up in bed and gave the nurses a full rendition of “Glasgow belongs to me” that was word perfect, in good tone and full voice. There followed a discussion about the inappropriateness of the song as Ronald was from Edinburgh and so one of the nurses downloaded the lyrics of more appropriate songs from the internet and Ronald gave his final concert, eventually exhausting himself. In the morning Ronald was hard to rouse and so his care nurse for that shift sat with him until he passed away at 10am. Ronald’s headstone in Caithness will read “Dum vixi cantabulum” “While I lived, I sang” Well that that all I have to say for now but “its been nice listening to me!”