Peter Meikle, who has died aged 93, rose to one of the most senior positions in Fife Constabulary but never forgot his humble beginnings.
He retired as a Detective Superintendent based at Dysart and was known for having the shiniest shoes in the force.
The shoes were highly significant to Peter, his daughter Mary said.
“He measured his wealth in shoes. As a child he only had one pair and the toes were cut out when he outgrew them.
“So to have eight pairs in adult life meant a lot to my father. He had learnt to bull his shoes in the army and used to sit at night with a paper on his knee polishing them.”
Peter cared greatly about his appearance and will be remembered as a detective who wore a kilt to work and often took his dog with him to work.
Peter, the son of papermill worker Peter Meikle was born at Cabbagehall, Leslie, in May 1929 and grew up with siblings Margaret, Alex and Agnes.
He was educated in Leslie and although he had the ability to go to university, it was beyond the financial resources of the family.
Instead, he left school at 14 and went to work in the papermill before being called up for National Service in the Royal Military Police.
He served in Derna and Benghazi in Libya, Palestine, Scarborough and Perth before being demobbed in 1947.
Given his army experience, Peter returned to Scotland and joined Fife police, serving first in Kirkcaldy then Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath, Burntisland and then force headquarters at Dysart.
He met his future wife, Margaret Stratton, at a police dance. They married in 1954 and had one daughter.
Mary said: “He served in all sections of the force from traffic to CID and retired in 1980. He then went on to work as an appliance officer at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, arranging walking aids for patients.
“My mother died in 2010 and my father went on to form a close friendship with Nazia who cared for him at home when his health deteriorated .
“You could say my father was a proud Scotsman who loved the landscape and the outdoors. He would think nothing of walking from Kinghorn to Perth and getting the bus back.
“He was remarkably fit and took part in the coast-to-coast challenge walk across Scotland, did the West Highland Way three times and was part of the Coppers for Charity team in 1985 that walked from Elie to Edinburgh to raise for a brain scanner at the Royal Sick Children’s Hospital in Edinburgh.”
Peter had also been a public speaker for 40 years and was in high demand for addressing the haggis at Burns Suppers.
Mary said: “He was passionate about Burns and Scotland. He had a collection of five kilts. His walking kilt, in the Lamont tartan, had lasted a lifetime and was patched with leather.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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