Obituary: Findlay Turner, Accountant and Church of Scotland office-holder

FINDLAY Turner was a very successful Ayrshire accountant who became a central figure in the life of the Church of Scotland, both in his native Saltcoats and in the corridors of power of the Kirk's General Assembly.

He was chairman of the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland, which owns almost all the Kirk's churches and manses and administers a fund of almost 18 million. He was convinced that unless the Kirk disposed of a huge number of its buildings, it would not be able, with a diminishing membership, to withstand the financial pressure it faces today.

After education at Saltcoats Primary School and then Ardrossan Academy, Turner undertook an accountancy apprenticeship with the firm which eventually became Wyllie Guild & McIntyre.

Almost as soon as he qualified in 1968, he was offered a partnership in what he helped to become one of the largest accounting firms, latterly BDO Stoy Hayward, by then among the world's top ten accounting firms. His career involved advising and auditing all sorts of firms and organisations in the private and non-profit-making sectors, and specialising in charity accounting, business valuation and wealth management advice.

In addition to his work with his accountancy firm, Turner held a number of public appointments. He was a non- executive director of the Post Office in Scotland for several years and convener of the audit practices committee of the Local Government Auditors Association in Scotland

In 1969, Turner became an elder and subsequently treasurer of the congregation of Saltcoats St Cuthberts and shortly afterwards an elder in the Presbytery of Ardrossan. For two years during the illness of the then presbytery clerk, he was acting clerk of the presbytery and in 2004 he became the first elder to be moderator of the presbytery.

He chaired the presbytery meetings with considerable graciousness but typical strength, and also took a huge delight in conducting services of worship in some of the presbytery's congregations.

In 1994, he became a member of the Kirk's General Trustees, and having been vice-chairman from 2003 to 2007, he took over the chair in 2008. He was indefatigable in visiting congregations whose buildings required money spent on them, particularly sensitive to the needs of those congregations which were in areas of deprivation, and always supportive of those who saw the need to be not just gatherings of like-minded worshippers but also committed to involvement with their local communities.

When the General Assembly set up a Parish Development Fund, initially under the leadership of Very Revd Dr Andrew McLellan, to provide funding for congregations which produced imaginative projects of community involvement, Turner was one of its most enthusiastic members.

When the Church found itself expected to submit to charity regulation and governance, there were some who sought to use arguments about the Church's supposed independence to resist compliance, but Turner from the outset argued that if regulation required best practice and that Kirk sessions as trustees had to carry liability for their actions, then the Church should accept that.

Turner was someone whose sense of personal and professional integrity was so high that he could be extremely critical of anyone who, he felt, had fallen below his own exacting standards. He was so concerned for the Church of Scotland that he sometimes appeared intolerant of anyone who did not share his particular vision of what was best for the Kirk he loved.

Occasionally, his sense of integrity and religious commitment conveyed to those who did not understand him an intolerance of views which differed from his. However, those who got to know him recognised that his sense of integrity was the debt he owed to the profession he loved, and his religious passion stemmed from a burning faith which could not understand those who said they shared that faith but did not share his commitment to it.

Throughout his life, Turner was supported by his wife Ann, who is also a qualified accountant. In the past two years, despite developing cancer and increasing chemotherapy treatment, Turner continued to chair meetings of the General Trustees, visit congregations which required support and take part in countless much less important church meetings.

He was incapable of giving all that he could to everything that was asked of him, and it was no surprise that when he could no longer give all he wanted, he quietly but firmly decided that, as he put it "enough was enough".

He was sustained through his illness by a faith which was as strong as it was simple, and as impressive as it was undemonstrative.

He is survived by his wife Ann, to whom he owed so much and his sons Robin, Gordon and David of whom he was so proud.