Mr. William Botterill, 1980
In early 1980, Blantyre was shocked to learn of the death of one of the most well known characters in the town, Mr. William Botterill. Mr Botterill died at the start of 1980, aged only 49.
William Botterill was born, bred and educated in Blantyre. He studied Business at a Glasgow College before serving 2 years National Service with the Royal Navy. His working life saw him joined Durastic Ltd and rose to be their Scottish Manager before joining his family firm in Blantyre, as a partner.
He had a special charge over off-sales and the day to day running of the small chain of stores throughout the West of Scotland, which in 1980, there were 8 of. Mr Botterill who lived at Burnside was active in running the business right up until his death. He was once a scout and took a keen interest in the organisation even being a leader at one time. Rev James Hunter of the David Livingstone Memorial Church conducted William’s funeral which was one of the best attended, with over 400 people coming along to pay their respects. The Botterill family were extremely touched by how many people from all walks of life came along to the church.
Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said:
Catherine Docherty This was my dads best friend and we called him uncle. Billy was a lovely man and was very close to our family.
Anne Gilmour Callaghan My mum worked for him in the farm road shop. Nice man
May Gardiner Remember him well
Maureen Friery Moran May Gardiner, me too. He was such a nice guy.
Kathleen Boyle Mg mum told me he started out with a grocers van I worked in the head office cleaning Mr jim botterill and his wife was there some days aswell nice people and the people that worked there aswell
Jiae Jiae My grannie babysat all the Botterills as they grew.
Mary Sitters I am sure Bill was a friend of my brothers. Will have to ask our Robert.