Ex-west Fife publishing figure and churchman John Blamey

A well-known Lochgelly man has died suddenly on holiday.

John Blamey, 69, died while on a family cycling holiday in the Southern Hebrides.

Mr Blamey was a prominent local churchman and Burnsian, who gave more than 40 years’ service to newspaper publishing and commercial printing in the west of Fife.

Mr Blamey was noted for his service to the kirk, serving Lochgelly’s Macainsh Parish Church, of which he was a former session clerk, and its successor congregation of St Serf’s.

At the time of his death, Mr Blamey was also treasurer of Cowdenbeath and District Probus Club, a member of East Fife Male Voice Choir and a season ticket holder at East End Park, home of Dunfermline Athletic FC.

He was formerly a member of Bowhill People’s Burns Club and a playing member of Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath Brass Bands.

Mr Blamey was a time-served compositor, entering the printing industry with John Westwater & Son, publishers of the former Cowdenbeath Advertiser and Lochgelly Times.

He moved to Dunfermline following that company’s take-over in 1966 by A Romanes & Son, printers and publishers of the Dunfermline Press.

As the company grew, Mr Blamey was promoted from assistant caseroom manager to overseer of its Dunfermline IT operations in computerised typesetting and digital page composition.

Mr Blamey is survived by his wife Karla, their sons Colin and Gregor and daughter Isla. His funeral services are today at St Serf’s Parish Church, Lochgelly, at 10.30am and at Kirkcaldy Crematorium at 11.45am.

Mr Blamey was 69.