Tributes have been paid to “Keith loon through and through”, community stalwart Peter Laing MBE.
The former care home owner was at the heart of Keith community activity for all of his life.
Butcher’s boy
Son of butcher and cattle dealer Alexander Laing, and his wife Rhoda, Peter was the youngest of four. He was born in the family home, Weston House, on March 31 1938.
Alongside his three sisters, Peter reported a happy childhood, though school was never somewhere he thrived.
Stigmatised for being left-handed, he turned to the family stables, the football pitch or playing tennis with friends, to find happiness.
‘Not as stupid as he thought’
On leaving school, Peter enrolled at Webster’s College in Elgin to study business management. It was there that a perceptive tutor suggested Peter might be dyslexic. A life-changing revelation, Peter recalled for the first time understanding he “was not as stupid as he’d been led to believe”.
Returning to the family business after graduating from college, Peter learned the trade and helped with bookkeeping.
When national service came calling Peter put his administrative skills to good use for the Seaforth Highlanders. Serving in Gibraltar and Munster he acted as Battalion Routine Orders Typist returning home afterwards with tales of over-friendly apes in the Naffi.
Delighted to have her boy back, Peter’s mother encouraged him to recommence work for the butcher’s shop only for Peter to opt for cattle buying instead.
Starting a family
Towards the end of the 1950s Peter met Doryce Robinson from Liverpool. They married in the summer of 1960 and though they later divorced in the early 1970s, the couple had two daughters – Lesley and Louise.
Peter worked for an Aberdeen cattle dealer, then had a spell at Smithfield Market in London before returning to Keith where he worked for FMC, Buchan Meat and Donald of Portlethen.
Weston House Care Home
In 1978 Peter remarried. He and nurse June Williamson from Fordyce, who had a son, Gary, brought their families together. The following year they turned the family home, Weston House, into an eight-bedroom nursing home.
June said: “We saw a real need for it at the time. I worked in geriatric wards and saw so many people languishing there when they would have done much better in a home.
“We brought my nursing and Peter’s business acumen together.”
The business was later expanded to look after 38 people, and a second home – Wakefield, in Cullen – was purchased in 1992.
Keith community life
Believing in high standards of care, and a place for home-owners voices to be heard, Peter helped establish the Association of Grampian Care Homes which he later became deputy chairman of.
This led to the formation of the Scottish Association of Care Home Owners, later known as Scottish Care. Peter served as a director and as secretary there for 15 years.
Public service is what Peter became best known for. Indeed, in the Queen’s 2015 birthday honours list he was an MBE for his services to business, philanthropy and the Keith community.
Out almost every night and involved in “just about everything”, June said she shared her husband with the Keith community for almost half a century.
Peter’s friend Watson Smith described his contribution to the community as “unequalled”.
Devoted to his family
Despite his copious other interests, Peter was a first and foremost a family man. A much-loved husband to June and devoted father to Lesley, Louise and Gary, he was also a respected father-in-law to Joe, David and Zoe.
In later years he became a “darling granda” to Katy, Rosie, Lucy, Reece, Sophie, and Stuart – not least because he always had a ready supply of sour sweets.
Over the years he loved to spend time with his dogs and to socialise with friends whenever possible.
A special man
Peter was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in retirement but it wasn’t until early 2020 that he began to need additional support. Initially offered a respite placement in Weston View, he was offered a permanent place during the pandemic.
Ever the social animal he enjoyed the community spirit of the home – especially playing bingo.
Following ongoing illness, Peter passed away suddenly, on December 10 in Weston View age 85.
Lesley said: “My dad was a really special man. He was just wonderful.
“At his funeral, we were all struck just by how much he had done over all the years. Because outside all of that, he still had time for his family.
“It’s really quite remarkable.”
