Loons’ president cortege to stop at Station Park

FUNERAL: Fans to bid popular Forfar Athletic figure a poignant farewell

The funeral cortege of Forfar Athletic’s president Jimmy Farquhar will make a poignant final journey to Station Park when the popular figure is laid to rest today.

Loons officials have led tributes to the town undertaker, who died at Lisden Nursing Home in Kirriemuir earlier this month.

Mr Farquhar, a bachelor, was originally from Canada but spent most of his life in the town and was best known through Alexander Bain’s funeral directors in West High Street, originally a joinery business in which he was a partner with the late Dave Balfour.

His calm but reassuring demeanour was a comfort to generations of Angus families whose funerals were carried out by the firm, which Mr Farquhar subsequently sold to enjoy a retirement of varied interests, including travelling widely with friends.

He was a lifelong supporter and benefactor of Forfar Athletic and agreed to become a Station Park director in 2005. In 2009 he assumed the role of vice-chairman, and was appointed president in 2016.

An honorary member of Strathmore Cricket Club, he was also a regular supporter there for more than 50 years.

He was also a highly respected figure in Masonic circles throughout Scotland and a Past Master of Lodge the Bruce at Friockheim, as well as an office-bearer of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Forfarshire and the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

In his younger day, Mr Farquhar was also a keen member of Forfar Instrumental Band.

His funeral has been arranged to allow the community and Loons fans to pay their respects despite the current coronavirus restrictions which will limit attendance at what would have been a large local turnout.

The cortege will leave Alexander Bain’s car park at 11.10am, passing St Margaret’s Church before a brief stop outside the office of the undertaker’s firm he founded.

It will then travel up North Street to Station Park where Forfar Athletic officials and supporters have been invited to gather around the main turnstile block at appropriate social distancing.

It is hoped a memorial celebration of his life will be arranged when the pandemic relaxation rules allow.

Cherished items of music and movie memorabilia gathered over many years by I’m a Celebrity star David Gest will be auctioned next month.

The music supremo was prompted to begin the vast collection thanks to his close friend Michael Jackson – an avid collector himself – who convinced him he was not buying “junk”.

Such was its size that following his death in 2016 it filled three lock-up storage units in Liverpool, where he also had an apartment overlooking Sefton Park.

Among the items being sold on behalf of his estate are signed items from his many showbiz friends including Jackson, Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Al Green, Bette Davis, Jane Russell and John Mills.

Gest, 62, found fame in the UK when he appeared in the 2006 edition of the ITV show I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here and a decade later featured in Celebrity Big Brother.

In his native US he entered the music industry by starting his own PR business, where his first client was soul singer Green, and he later became a renowned music and concert producer.

Gest met Jackson when he was a teenager and his neighbour in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley.

One of the auction lots is 26 pages of an unpublished book by Gest on Jackson typed on A4 paper, thought to be dated to 1984, with the opening lines: “The thought of writing a book about Michael Jackson never really crossed my mind until recently. For one, I hate to write, and secondly, so much has been written about Michael Jackson.”

Mr Farquhar is laid to rest today.