Ex-councillor played part in many charities

Elisabeth Cargill Hill helped others in many fields and was recognised with an OBE

Celebrated Angus OBE Elisabeth Cargill Hill has died in Carnoustie after contracting Covid-19. She was 82.

Husband Robert paid tribute to the former Angus district councillor whose long and varied career spanned libraries, theatres, hotels and the county’s agricultural show.

The first female member of Arbroath Speakers Club, she also kept up numerous hobbies.

Robert said: “She was editor of the national Speaker Magazine. She loved her cars, especially if they were opentopped, her gardens and books.

“She wrote profusely although she was never published, and adored notebooks. She called herself a Scottie person but loved all her dogs.”

A local councillor in Angus from 1988-95, she established herself as one of the foremost authorities on supporting people with drug and alcohol problems in the region, for which she received an OBE in 2000. She was a member of the Scottish Conservative Party.

She died peacefully at Kinloch Care Centre on Tuesday.

She was mother to Hamish and Amanda and a mother-in-law, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, and also a friend to many.

She attended school at Hamilton Academy and Cranley School for Girls in Edinburgh before training as a librarian and working in Lanarkshire, then with the British Council in West Africa.

She then moved to Manchester, becoming assistant manager of the university theatre, and later returning to Scotland in 1969 to work as a publicity officer for the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow before managing the Cumbernauld Theatre.

After being the first manager of Netherbow Arts Centre in Edinburgh, the first of several career switches saw her take on business roles in Aberdeenshire and Angus. She ran the Ramsay Arms Hotel with husband Robert and cousin Alasdair in Fettercairn, and the Coffee House in Montrose.

Spells followed in the charity sector, before excelling as secretary of the Angus Agricultural Show.

Her charitable work included serving as secretary of Crossroads, Angus, and at different times as chairwoman of Angus Association of Voluntary Organisations, Angus Mental Health Association, Angus Women’s Aid, Starter Packs Angus and Angus branch of the Order of St John, for which she was promoted to Commander of the Order of St John.

She was vice-chairwoman of the Scottish Association for Mental Health, chairwoman of Arthritis Care (Scotland) and a member of the National Lottery Advisory Board for Scotland. She chaired the National Lottery Millennium Fund Community Halls Committee.

After surviving cancer in 2014 she spent two years studying at Dundee University before graduating with a Higher Education Diploma in Professional Development in 2018.

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She called herself a Scottie person but loved all her dogs. HUSBAND ROBERT

Picture: Mhairi Edwards.