Banker;

Born: October 5, 1934; Died: June 4, 2012 .

Boyd Brodie, who has died aged 77, was an old-school banker whose desire to help others never left him.

After a career in the Royal Bank of Scotland spanning almost 40 years, he continued to do what he loved best – getting things done and aiding others to succeed in business.

He worked until his death for both a pub company and his local community, contributing to the commercial success of numerous ventures and improving the lives of countless people through his voluntary service.

Born in Hamilton, he was the son of an engine driver and railway foreman and was educated at the town's Beckford Street School before attending the prestigious Hamilton Academy.

Although the natural progression would have been for him to go to university, he was keener to start work and took a job in the timetables office of British Rail at Glasgow's Buchanan House.

It fitted perfectly with the love of trains that he had inherited from his father. However, while his enthusiasm for rail travel lasted a lifetime, the job was fairly short-lived as he soon embarked on a career in the bank, a profession shared by an uncle.

He joined the National Commercial Bank of Scotland, later to be subsumed into the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and began as a teller in his local branch in Hamilton.

The bank also provided an introduction to his future wife, Margaret. They met when he was sent on relief to the branch where she worked at Lundin Links in Fife. On their first date he said he would marry her and remained true to his word – they celebrated their golden wedding two years ago.

He went on to work in various branches including Aberdour, where he lived latterly, Bernard Street in Leith and Goldenacre in Edinburgh, where he was an accountant.

His rise through the managerial ranks began in Burntisland in Fife in 1973. Seven years later he moved to Arbroath as manager.

Mr Brodie, who also edited the RBS staff magazine and featured in the film Portrait Of The Royal Bank, was then sent Leeds to set up the bank's first English branch. He managed the branch there for four years and was extremely proud of the achievement.

Back in Scotland, he became chief manager, based in Kirkcaldy, from 1987 to 1991, before being appointed regional manager, responsible for an area covering central Scotland and south Fife.

After retiring in 1994 he became a financial consultant for Kingdom Taverns, a freehold pub company which enabled tenants to run their own public houses. It was a role in keeping with the sense of satisfaction he had gained from helping others in business throughout his banking career.

An individual with a huge personality and joie de vivre, in early adulthood he had completed his national service with the RAF and said it was the making of him as a man.

It resulted in a life in which he was always industrious, rarely sat down – when he did it was often to watch television at the same time as completing a crossword – and contributed a tremendous amount of voluntary work to the communities in which he lived.

He was a founder member of Corstorphine Round Table, past president of Livingston Rotary Club and had been due to be installed as president elect of Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay Rotary last month.

He had been secretary of Arbroath Burns Club in the 1980s, contributed to the Aberdour community in a various roles, including as treasurer of Aberdour Day Care Centre, and had recently volunteered with the Scotland's Care Inspectorate as a lay assessor to visit and assess nursing and care homes in Scotland.

He also had a number of sporting interests: he was a keen bowler, supporter of Hamilton Academical and golfed at Aberdour Golf Club where he was an honorary member and had been involved for more than 50 years, playing several times a week. As a boy he had become an accomplished pianist, stopping just short of sitting his Royal Academy of Music diploma, and continued to play the piano and organ. He would often take off into the back room at home, immersing himself in playing the organ for an hour or so at a time.

A seasoned traveller – he once visited Berlin to experience the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Berlin wall and particularly enjoyed Majorca and Ischia – if he spotted a piano in a hotel he would occasionally sit down at it and play one of his favourite songs from the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

He also retained his childhood love of trains and railways and enjoyed day trips to Scarborough and York, building a great relationship with his local station master Trevor Francis in Aberdour whom he would have been delighted to see awarded an MBE recently.

Mr Brodie, who died while on holiday in Spain, is survived by his wife Margaret, children Alison and Lesley, granddaughter Luka and his brothers John and Bill.