Eric Hogg, a former principal teacher of geography at Forfar Academy, has died aged 97.
He was also a former Boys’ Brigade captain, a long-serving church elder and a former session clerk at Lowson Memorial Church.
As a boy of three, Eric’s family emigrated from Coupar Angus to Chicago just before the stock market crash of 1929 which left them penniless in a city dominated by Al Capone and Prohibition-era violence.
The family returned to Scotland and Eric saw war service then qualified as a compositor with DC Thomson before training as a teacher.
Eric was born in Coupar Angus in February 1926 to mechanical fitter Edward Hogg and his wife Honorah and grew up with brothers Gordon and Edward.
Emigration
In April 1929, the family left for Chicago in search of a better life and lived with Honorah’s sister.
Edward worked as a mechanic in a meat factory but after the stock market crashed later that year, the family lost all the money they held in the bank. Until her death in 1993, Honorah would not trust banks and kept her money in a tin below her bed.
Eric’s son, Graeme, said: “During this period, finance was burst, money was valueless, Al Capone was running wild with other gangsters, Prohibition was in place and life was not great.
“The family decided to come home and settled in Peddie Street in Dundee.”
Publishing career
Eric went to Blackness Primary School, then Logie Secondary and when he left school he joined publishers DC Thomson doing general duties in Bank Street before he was old enough to start his seven-year apprenticeship as a compositor.
He worked on The People’s Friend and The Scots Magazine before being called up for war service in 1943, just before the end of his apprenticeship.
After a spell in the RAF in Edinburgh he was transferred to the King’s Rifle Battalion in York then moved to operational duties in Palestine.
Eric survived a bomb blast that ripped apart a troop train and remained in the Middle East until 1947 when he returned to complete his apprenticeship.
Before the war, Eric had joined The Boys’ Brigade and after the war returned as an officer, progressing to become captain of the 9th Dundee company based at McCheyne Church until 1965.
Marriage and family
He met his future wife Eleanor because both their grandfathers worked at the gas works in Dundee. They married in 1951 and went on to have three of a family, Graeme, Maureen and Frances.
In 1965, Eric decided on a career change, gained Highers at college in Dundee and studied at St Andrews University, graduating with an honours degree in geography in 1970.
After a further year at teacher training college, Eric took up his first post at Linlathen High School, Dundee, before transferring to Forfar, where he became principal geography teacher in 1978, a post he held until he retired in 1990.
Graeme said: “Throughout his life, my father was heavily involved with the church.
“He became an elder in January 1952 at McCheyne Memorial Church and when they moved to Forfar, continued his eldership at Lowson Memorial Church Forfar.
“Later he became session clerk, a post he held for 18 years.”
Outside work, Eric was a member and had served as treasurer of the National Geographical Society at Dundee University, was a Probus Club member at Forfar, an indoor and outdoor bowler and a member of Alyth Golf Club.
Both Eric and Eleanor loved travelling, made several trips to Canada and enjoyed bus trips and holidays in the UK and Europe but above all he was a family man.
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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