Ian Guthrie

Chartered accountant

Born: October 12, 1935;

Died: December 26, 2016

IAN Guthrie, who has died aged 81, was an accountant and amateur sportsman whose appetite for travel and languages took him initially to 1960s West Germany, where the first two of his five children were born, then east Africa, where he found love for an Ethiopian woman as well as the warmth of her country and its culture.

Ian William Guthrie was born in Falkirk to Bill, a civil engineer, and Alice, a schoolteacher. Due to their father’s reserved occupation Ian and his younger brother Derek led a nomadic childhood, spending time in Northern Ireland – where he witnessed first-hand the Belfast Blitz of 1941 – and Edinburgh before settling in Glasgow.

Mr Guthrie was educated mainly at Glasgow Academy, where he discovered a passion for rugby which was to stay with him for the best part of 70 years besides robbing him of his two front teeth.

After leaving school he undertook national service as a submariner with the Royal Navy, serving principally on HMS Andrew, an experience he enjoyed to such an extent that he stayed on beyond the mandatory 18 months.

Mr Guthrie then enrolled as an undergraduate at Cambridge University’s Emmanuel College, studying languages. Although by his own admission his focus was somewhat lacking on the educational side his social and sporting skills flourished, and he took to rowing as effortlessly as he had to rugby.

After Cambridge Mr Guthrie returned to Glasgow, where he began training to become a chartered accountant with Peat Marwick. It was at this time that he met a young nurse from Ayrshire, Ann Kirkland, who was emigrating to Canada. Following a series of transatlantic love letters Mr Guthrie’s persistence paid off and the couple were reunited six months later, marrying in 1963.

Through Mr Guthrie’s training the newlyweds relocated from Glasgow to Bad Soden near Frankfurt in West Germany, where they enjoyed a full social life and took advantage of their proximity to excellent skiing runs. In 1966 they had their first child, Mark, and less than two years later a daughter, Alison.

When Mr Guthrie’s overseas posting came to an end in 1969 the family moved back to Scotland and chose as their base the town of Largs on the Ayrshire coast. A second daughter, Karen, was born in 1970 and a second son, Sean, arrived in 1971.

For the ensuing decade or so Mr Guthrie focused on what he deemed the main priority of a father, namely providing for his family, while keeping fit through playing rugby for his beloved Glasgow Accies, running – he completed the Glasgow marathon in 1982 at the age of 47 — and golf. He also served as treasurer of the fledgling Largs Viking Festival.

Mr Guthrie became disenchanted with accountancy and worked for a spell in life insurance, but the offer of a position as the financial director of a shipping firm in the east African country of Djibouti was too good to pass up, especially with the looming prospect of funding further education for four children.

In 1983 he left for Africa and for the next decade returned twice a year, finding his sons and daughters developing as children do. Mark and Sean attended Glasgow University, Alison went to St Andrew’s University and Karen studied at Edinburgh College of Art. In the era before student loans his salary played a crucial part in seeing his children through their studies.

It was upon Mr Guthrie’s return to Largs from Djibouti that he revealed to his wife and family that he had fallen in love with an Ethiopian woman, Tadalech, and they had a four-year-old son, Campbell, who lived with his mother in Addis Ababa. Mr Guthrie insisted that he wished to remain Ann’s husband while planning for a future for his youngest boy in Scotland and ensuring Tadalech and her family were financially secure.

During the years that followed, in which Mr Guthrie and his wife separated and eventually divorced but remained interdependent, and in which he strived to establish a sound upbringing for Campbell, Mr Guthrie never shirked from the complexities to which his choices had led. His decisions were not always popular but he stood by them and did what he thought was best.

Around this time Mr and Mrs Guthrie became grandparents to Alison’s daughter Zoe then to Alison and her partner Joe’s children Emma, Mia, Adam and Lila. Known to them as Papa, Mr Guthrie was a benevolent figure whose generosity revealed itself in the form of unpredictable birthday gifts and donations of loose change for the buying of sweets.

He never expressed a hankering for retirement and continued to work in London well into his seventies, spending weekends in Largs, where Campbell was by now living.

When Mrs Guthrie became disabled following a stroke in 2008, Mr Guthrie in time assumed a central role in the elaborate system of care she required and he was a pivotal presence towards the end of her life, elevating her mood while ensuring she was comfortable in between visits from her carers.

Having visited Ethiopia regularly since coming back to live in Scotland, Mr Guthrie returned in 2012 and fulfilled a long-held promise to marry Tadalech.

Following the death of his ex-wife Mr Guthrie moved from Largs into sheltered accommodation in Govan, a stone’s throw from the home Alison and Joe share with their children. Mr Guthrie became a de facto member of the household and drew fathomless pleasure from geeing everybody up with witticisms and fantastical stories, such as his having been a Harley Street doctor until he was struck off, or having taught Rudolph Nureyev everything he knew.

His health began to falter last June when he was diagnosed with jaundice. He recovered but then suffered a couple of strokes which stole from him his excellent verbal dexterity, and his frustration was impossible to overlook. Without conversation, without humour, his quality of life was much diminished.

Mr Guthrie is survived by his wife Tadalech, his children Mark, Alison, Karen, Sean and Campbell, and grandchildren Zoe, Emma, Mia, Adam and Lila.