Sandy Beveridge.
Forensic chemist, lawyer and teacher.
Born: February 17, 1940
Died: December 28, 2014.
Alexander (Sandy) Beveridge, who has died aged 74, was forensic chemist, author, lawyer and teacher and a world expert on forensics, training law enforcement officers and scientists from around the world on investigation techniques. He was a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada and spent 30 years in the Forensic Science Service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
He grew up in Clarkston, Glasgow where he attended Eastwood Secondary and studied inorganic chemistry to PhD level at Glasgow University.
He first went to live in Canada in 1964, one week after marrying Anne (née Sloss) in their native Glasgow and two weeks after gaining his PhD. The couple emigrated three years later, after Mr Beveridge spent a year doing post-doctorate research at Cambridge University. Embodying the ideals of lifelong learning and insatiable curiosity, he went on to earn an MBA, an LL.B and certificates in leisure pursuits such as shiatsu massage, sailing and Aikido.
During his 50-year career, he was a forensic chemist, author, lawyer and teacher and at the Forensic Science Service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he headed the chemistry section in the Vancouver laboratory for many years. A world expert on forensics, he also educated the next generation of forensic investigators at British Columbia Institute of Technology. In his spare time, he taught and tutored thousands of students in both chemistry and business through the Vancouver School Board, Open Learning Agency and Thompson Rivers University.
Away from work, he indulged his life-long passions for golf, fishing and canoeing. A late convert to Hawaiian holidays, he discovered a love for snorkelling and running on the beach.
He returned to Scotland regularly for both business and pleasure and always tried to make time for a visit to Arran, scene of early family holidays, or his sister Anne's holiday chalet on Loch Fyne.
He recently celebrated his golden wedding with his wife and other members of his Scottish family in Glasgow. He lived a full and positive life and found joy in watching his four children become independent adults and the next generation of his family grow, at home in Vancouver and in Denmark.
He faced the last difficult weeks of his illness with the same fortitude and wry sense of humour with which he tackled all of life's inevitable set-backs and challenges.
He is survived by his wife Anne, his sister Anne, his children David, Ian. Robert and Fiona and his seven grandchildren Annika, Zachary, Bianka, Michael, Kamilla, Claire and Megan.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article