Celebrated Angus OBE Elisabeth Cargill Hill has passed away in Carnoustie after suffering from Covid-19.
Husband Robert paid tribute to the 82-year-old former Angus district councillor whose long and varied career spanned libraries, theatres, hotels and the county’s agricultural show.
Her funeral was held on Friday, June 5, 2020.
The first female member of the 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 open topped, 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.”
Elisabeth served as a district councillor in Angus from 1988 to 1995, establishing herself as one of the foremost authorities on supporting people with drug and alcohol problems in the region, work for which she received an OBE in 2000. She was a member of the Scottish Conservative Party.
She passed away peacefully, at Kinloch Care Centre, on Tuesday, June 2.
She was mother to Hamish and Amanda and mother-in-law, grandmother, great- grandmother and friend to many.
She became one of the oldest students ever to graduate from the University of Dundee in 2018 when she completed her Higher Education Diploma in Professional Development aged 80.
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, before returning to Scotland in 1969 to work as a publicity officer for the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow before managing the Cumbernauld Theatre.
She became so used to being in charge in a theatre, she once said in an interview, she instinctively asked for the end seat in a row when viewing productions in case of an emergency.
Elisabeth went on to be the first manager of the Netherbow Arts Centre in Edinburgh’s High Street before the first of several career switches brought her to Angus, where she ran the Ramsay Arms hotel with her husband Robert and cousin Alasdair in Fettercairn, and the Coffee House in Montrose.
Spells followed in the charity sector, before excelling in the role of secretary of the Angus Agricultural Show.
She once remarked there wasn’t much to choose between dealing with a temperamental prima ballerina, and being pinned in a corner of the secretary’s tent by a mother whose child’s beloved pony has been placed only fourth or fifth in a contest.
Her charitable work included serving as secretary of Crossroads, Angus and at different times the chair of Angus Association of Voluntary Organisations, Angus Mental Health Association, Angus Womens Aid, Starter Packs Angus and the Angus Branch of the Order of St John, for which she was promoted to Commander of the Order of St John.
Nationally, she was Vice-Chair of the Scottish Association for Mental Health, chair 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.
