The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Head teacher and rugby player David Whyte, 81
He played rugby for Scotland and was part of the British athletics team, but for St Andrews and Oxford-educated David Whyte, becoming a high school rector was among his proudest achievements.
Born in Cupar, Fife, on February 21 1940, David James Whyte was the fourth of five children for Helen and Alexander Whyte.
Helen raised David and his siblings Helen, Moira, Sandy and Graeme while her husband worked as a lab technician at Guardbridge Paper Mill.
Sadly David’s father died when he was just 13.
Having attended Castlehill School, he moved on to Bell Baxter High School. It was here that both David’s academic and sporting abilities became evident.
Not only did he captain the school’s rugby team and excel in athletics, he also attained a Harkness Exhibition bursary to study English Language and Literature at St Andrews University.
While at St Andrews, he captained the university rugby team and the Scottish Universities team.
In a tribute from Scottish Rugby on hearing of David’s death, his sporting achievements were documented.
It said: “It was noted that on one incredible weekend in 1959, David played sevens for Howe of Fife and then headed straight to Paris, where he won the first of his eight Great Britain Athletics vests.”
David won the Eric Liddell Trophy for Outstanding Achievement at the Scottish Schoolboys Championship – not once, but twice. The most amazing accolade was that his Scottish long jump record stood for 30 years unbroken.
He won the British Junior Long Jump Championship in 1958 and the British Senior Long Jump Championship in 1959.
During his time at university, he competed internationally, travelling to Russia, Finland, France, Ireland and England and despite being a modest 5ft 8, he also excelled in the high jump.
David had met Judith Mckechnie at school, and they were at St Andrews together.
In 1963 they married on September 20, in St Mary’s Church, Dairsie, and moved down to Oxford.
David achieved his diploma in education from Oxford and it was there that he earned the prestigious Oxford Blue.
The “blue” is only awarded to members of the rugby team who play in the Oxford-cambridge match, which David did in 1963.
From 1962-67, David also played for the Barbarians rugby team.
David and Judith returned to Scotland when David took up his first teaching job at Strathallan School in Perth, where they lived in a cottage on the grounds.
He played for Edinburgh Wanderers and won his first cap for Scotland playing against Wales at Murrayfield on February 6 1965.
As a winger he made 13 appearances for Scotland in total, with 11 of them coming in the Five Nations.
David and Judith went on to have four sons: Stephen, Geoffrey, Barnaby and Sebastian, and as a family they moved around Scotland in support of David’s teaching career.
Always involved in the communities where they lived, David became a Church of Scotland elder and remained so for more than 50 years.
Judith Whyte said: “In 1983 we moved to Golspie.
“Although he loved every school he had been in, in different ways, he really was very proud of his time at Golspie High School where he was rector.”
The couple also had 11 grandchildren: four grandsons and seven granddaughters.
Claire Whyte, David’s daughter-in-law, said: “He was an absolutely brilliant grandfather.”
David passed away peacefully, after a short illness in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, aged 81.