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Fred Black: Former Broughty Ferry lollipop man dies aged 91

He took a job in a garage in Dock Street before joining his wife and daughter at Forthill where they were known as the lollipop family.

Former Forthill school lollipop man Fred Black has died.
Former Forthill school lollipop man Fred Black has died.

Fred Black, who served as a lollipop man at Forthill Primary School, Broughty Ferry, has died aged 91.

He took up the post aged 70, joining his wife Helen and daughter Freda on the crossing-patrol rota at the school.

Helen, who died in 2016, was lollipop lady at the school for 40 years and was presented with an MBE by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 1998.

Daughter, Freda, has been lollipop lady for 33 years, as well as working as a dinner lady.

Fred, who died on May 24 and would have been 92 on May 31, was brought up in Fisher Street, Broughty Ferry, by his mother, Minnie Black and, after leaving school, joined the merchant navy and trained as an engineer.

Seeing the world

His work took him to the furthest corners of the world including to New Zealand, Hong Kong and Canada.

He met his future wife, Helen, during the 1950s and the couple married at St Mary’s Church, Broughty Ferry, on June 29 1957.

Fred came out of the merchant navy in 1962 and began work on the Tay ferries. When the bridge made the ferries redundant in 1966, he joined the slaughterhouse in Dock Street as a maintenance engineer.

His next engineering job was at the old ice rink on Kingsway and when that closed, he had a spell living and working in England.

A family affair; Fred Black with his wife Helen and daughter Freda.
A family affair; Fred Black with his wife Helen and daughter Freda.

His daughter, Freda, said he always worried about not being busy and at the age of 65 or 66 took a job in a garage in Dock Street before joining his wife and daughter at Forthill where they were known as the lollipop family.

Freda said: “My parents loved their holidays. They were in the United States 25 times and went abroad for a month every year.

“They went to California and also loved Las Vegas. My mum often won enough on the machines in Las Vegas to pay for the hotel.

“When my mother died we took her ashes over to Hong Kong to scatter and I will do the same with my father’s.

“My father was fit and active to the end. He went to Hong Kong three times after my mother died and went on a train trip across Canada and a cruise of Alaska.

“He loved his lollipop job; loved the kids and got on well with all the parents who would often bring him cakes.”

Fred was a grandfather of four and a great-grandfather to three children.

You can read the family’s announcement here.

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