Stalwart of bowling;

Born: June 6, 1933;
Died: July 2, 2013.

Jack Wallace, who has died aged 80, was a leading figure in Scottish bowling. He was president of Bowls Scotland and travelled the length and breadth of the county promoting the sport.

He was born in Newbury to Scottish parents Catherine and John Heath Wallace and grew up in Arbroath. In the late 1950s, he moved to the Springburn area of Glasgow and married Joan McKay in 1959. They moved to Cardonald and spent the rest of their lives there.

In his working life, he was a mechanic in the Scottish Ambulance service, moving into the administrative side at their city centre offices in Glasgow before retiring at 65.

But his passion was bowls. He joined his local Fairfield Bowling club in 1966 and served as secretary and later as president. He held a similar post within the Govan League and was made an honorary secretary of both.

His organisational talents were exemplary, which led to him taking up the post of district secretary for the Glasgow South Area 30 in the Scottish Bowling Association under the regime of President Jack Jeans in 1993. Mr Wallace's skills were respected as he too over the organisation of the national championship play-downs for the 24 clubs within his area.

When the national men's and women's national associations merged several years ago and became known at Bowls Scotland, a new president was needed. As is the tradition, the post is decided on length of service, and with 20 years to his credit, this honour was bestowed on Mr Wallace at the AGM held at the National Stadium in Hampden in November. He duly succeeded Blackhill's Mike Devoy into the hot seat as the 120th president.

Mr Wallace made friends easily and was welcome everywhere he went and held in high esteem by club, county and international representatives. Well supported in his district secretary role by his late wife Joan until her death in 2008, he was one of the sport's true gentlemen, a genuine person with old-fashioned values and beliefs who spoke from his heart and worked tirelessly. He had no hidden agendas and no illusions of grandeur in furthering his own standings in the bowling community and was well thought of everywhere he went.

He continued to play the sport with varying degrees of success, but never lost his enthusiasm to point his member clubs in the right direction and give support wherever and whenever it was required.

Bowls Scotland Chairman Bill Knox was fulsome in his praise of Wallace. "All of the bowling fraternity is desperately sad to hear of Jack's passing," he said. "He will be a big loss and will be greatly missed by all. He was highly thought of throughout Scotland and I've only ever heard good words spoken about him.

"He was an extremely decent man who gave a large part of his life to promote our sport and you can't put a value on that".

Ian Anderson, SBA President in 2005 and the first president of World Bowls Limited, forged a strong professional and family relationship with Mr Wallace over the years.

"Jack was always the voice of reason and fortitude at council meetings," said Mr Anderson. "He was a warm, genuine person who fought for the sport and not to further his own standings within our community. He will most certainly leave a void."

Mr Wallace died at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow after a short illness. He is survived by his sons, John, Alan and Neil and their immediate families.