Bryan Neave of Aberdeen, an outstanding sportsman, senior Freemason, and former telegram boy, has died aged 81.
He played football at Highland League level for Peterhead then juniors, coached PO Eagles basketball team for 40 years and was on the fringes of the Scottish basketball side.
Bryan survived cancer, and lost a leg due to diabetes, but continued to play golf at Portlethen and was picked for the Scottish Golf Disability Partnership to play against England.
He was born in September 1941 at 32 Carden Place, Aberdeen, to postman David Neave and his wife Anna Rae. He had an older sister, Pearl, and older brother, David, and the family grew up in Middlefield Place.
Bryan was educated at Woodside Primary School, where he played for the school football team, known as the Ghosties as they played in all white.
He then went to Hilton Academy and finished his education at Powis Academy. He was always athletic and played for the school football teams.
When he left school he went straight to work with the General Post Office on January 21 1957 as a telegram boy riding a BSA Bantam motorcycle to deliver messages all over the city.
He was to spend his entire career with the GPO and it successor organisations.
Bryan moved from telegrams to become a postie and had a spell working on the travelling Post Office train, journeying as far south as Carlisle before returning to Aberdeen.
In 1974 he transferred to Post Office Telephones as an engineer installing phone services and repairing faults in and around Aberdeen.
In the early 1980s he had the opportunity to transfer to the BT sales force for the last part of his career. His clients were the large oil companies to which he sold switchboards and internal telephony.
He also covered the Shetland Isles and, in 1982, the family moved to Inverness when he was transferred and remained there was three years.
Bryan had met his future wife, Jennifer Sparks (Jen), in 1963 when she worked at Paull & Williamson solicitors where he would deliver mail and parcels.
They became engaged in 1964 and on November 6 1965 married at St James Episcopal Church, Holburn Street, Aberdeen, followed by a reception at Queen’s Hotel.
Their daughter, Jill, was born in 1966 followed by Derek in 1971. Bryan was to lose Jen in 1992 after a year-long battle with breast cancer.
Derek married Shonagh in August 2001 and grandsons Fraser was born in December 2002 and Harris in October 2010.
Throughout his life, Bryan had coached PO Eagles, a basketball team he set up with other telegram boys and posties in the 1950s.
He combined this with spells in earlier life playing for Peterhead and then Rosemount and Stonehaven juniors.
Top-flight player
At basketball he played for Scotland at junior level and played in the national league with Barratt Flyers.
His daughter, Jill, said: “In 1961 he saw the Harlem Globetrotters and the great Meadowlark Lemon when they played at Pittodrie.
“In May 1979 he played for the Post Office Recreation Council in the Great Britain team at a tournament in Belgium, competing against teams from Switzerland, Germany, France, Hungary as well as the host country.
“He was also chosen to play in a Scotland select team against a Scottish universities select – this was for players on the fringes of the Scotland senior national team and was an honour for him to have been selected.”
His diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in the 1970s did not stop him pursuing sport as long as he had a supply of chocolate to balance his blood-sugar levels.
A Freemason since 1978, Bryan’s mother lodge was Lodge Sons of the Soil, Crown Street, Aberdeen, where he held many position including master, past-master, secretary and treasurer.
He was a founder member of the Lodge of Portlethen and, in 2012, was appointed provincial grand secretary of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Aberdeen City. Bryan was also instrumental in setting up the Aberdeen Freemasons Choir, which recorded a CD.
You can read the family’s announcement here.