Trevor Dear, a long-term and well respected RSPBA judge, has died. He was 79 and died yesterday in hospital.
Dear was an RSPBA adjudicator for many years, retiring after the 2014 season when he reached 75. On retiring he was made an Honorary Life Member of the RSPBA.
Prior to becoming a pipe band judge, Dear spent may years competing with pipe bands. In the late 1950s he joined the Grade 1 Forfar Burgh Pipe Band, becoming its Pipe Major in 1961.
In 1964 he joined Invergordon Distillery under Donald Shaw Ramsay. When Ramsay retired, Dear was briefly Pipe Major but in 1966 joined Iain McLeod’s Edinburgh City Police band.
He and his family settled in Dingwall and on leaving Edinburgh City Police he was appointed Pipe Major of Dingwall British Legion which he took from Grade 4 to Grade 1 in a handful of seasons.
In 1974 he retired from playing in pipe bands and became a pipe band judge, joining the RSPBA’s Adjudicators’ Panel.
In 2007 he published The Speyside Highland Collection, which included some of his own compositions as well as those from other leading composers.
Dear was born in Forfar, Angus, and was taught as a youngster by Norman Meldrum on Deeside before receiving tuition locally. He won many amateur prizes as a youth.
The details of the funeral service are not known as yet.
We extend our sympathies to wife Nora and family.
