Real Lives: Dedicated coach was ahead of his time

A DEDICATED sportsman, gymnast and former Edinburgh teacher who battled to change the face of PE forever is remembered.

Finlay McLachlan was born on 5 June 1925 in Overtown, Wishaw. He was the first son to John and Maria before his brother, Iain, was born seven years later.

He attended Coatbridge Secondary before enrolling at Glasgow University to study language and humanities. After one year, his education ended prematurely. Britain was at war and when he turned 18, he was called up.

He joined the Parachute Regiment in Egypt and became an Army physical training corps instructor. In 1947, he left the Army and began his teacher training at Dunfermline College of Physical Education in Aberdeen.

After qualifying, he secured a full-time role at Ainslie Park Secondary School, Edinburgh.

By 1956, he was promoted to principal teacher of physical education which he continued until his retirement in 1988.

At Ainslie Park, he met art teacher, Cecile Johnston and they married on 5 July 1958.

They lived together for over 50 years in Newington until Cecile's death in 2009.

In 1965, his daughter was born and was named after her mother.

Finlay was influential in shaping Scottish physical education. In the early 70s, he was the driving force to implement co-education for PE. He immersed himself and his department in lots of forward thinking.

A former colleague described him as the Mozart of Scottish PE because he was 'idiosyncratic, radical, pioneering and he absolutely didn't care what the establishment thought'.

He was a talented athlete and played with the Musselburgh RFC and Edinburgh Borderers before joining the Edinburgh Wanderers in 1951-52. For 15 years, he was a regular player of the first XV, captaining the club in his final seasons of 1964-65 and 1965-66.

His hopes for the club's success was based on the idea that only people who made the regular effort to go to training would be eligible for the first XV. The club considered this extreme for an "open" club and based on principle, Finlay resigned. He was eventually proved right.

He studied classical ballet and was also a member of the Scottish Elite gymnastic team, representing Britain at the Ling Gymnastics festival in Sweden. He loved fencing and ran the Ainslie Fencing Club.

In the 1986 Commonwealth event, Finlay was recognised as having started three of the five weapon team captains on their fencing career. He was awarded the prestigious Roger Crosnier Memorial Trophy that same year, in recognition of his coaching achievement.

In his later years, he found it difficult being less mobile. He died peacefully in his sleep on 29 July 2010. He is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren.