Obituary: Robert H Soper FRICS, quantity surveyor who brought his skills to altruistic works in social housing sector

My father Robert H Soper FRICS (variously known as RHS, Bob, Bobby or Robert), was born in Hong Kong in 1926, the second son and fourth child and the last surviving child of Ann and Charles Haward Soper. He died peacefully in his sleep at home in Haggs in the early hours of 26 November, 2011, with his daughter Josephine looking after him.

His struggle with the man with the scythe was heroic. Nearly eight weeks passed after a medical prophecy that he had five, perhaps seven, days left, before losing the unequal fight.

It reminds me of his oft told story of his Uncle John, warned by his doctor that if he returned to China he would last no more than six months. John returned three years later, sought out the doctor to tell him “I told you so” – a Soper favourite saying. To his delight, Uncle John discovered that the doctor, a somewhat younger man had died.

RHS came to Scotland in the 1930s by way of Wei-Hei-Wei – where his grandfather Duncan Clark was a well-known merchant and hotelier – and Penang, and was educated at the Edinburgh Institution and Heriot Watt College.

He is survived by his wife Anne Soper (nee Weir) and by six children from his first marriage to Catherine Soper (Kit or Kate deceased; nee Gillies and latterly Manders), Haward, Gregory, Paula, Nicholas, Josephine and Quentin Robert and by six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Serving in the King’s Dragoon Guards, he was in the reserve for D Day, missed continental action and spent his time in uniform in Long Range Desert Rescue in Libya and in Palestine from 1945 to 1948.

He joined Cumbernauld Development Corporation in the 1950s and thus began a 50-year association with the town. An erudite and literary man, who loved Shakespeare and Yeats, he could recite yards of both and often did on long car journeys, and held Swift and Chandler up as the best literary stylists.

His love of letters is known to many through The Scotsman for which he was a choleric, eclectic and entertaining contributor to the letters page over many decades.

He entertained widely and well, ran flashy cars (including an E-Type Jaguar), fished the River Helmsdale for some 40 years, usually in the early days of each new spring – in spite of the freezing wind howling up Strath Halladale – created a Canoe Club at Craigmarloch, ran his very successful quantity surveying practice, Robert H Soper & Company, from Cumbernauld, Falkirk and 48 Great King Street, Edinburgh and owned Cumbernauld’s first bookshop – Scan.

His contribution to social housing in Scotland is well known; he was a founder of Link Housing Association, Jamaica Street Ltd and Hjaltland Housing Association.

His generosity was astounding; he had many tickets for the Grand Slam deciders at Murrayfield in 1984 and 1990. He went to neither match, but made absolutely certain that tickets went to clients and friends.

On behalf of all who knew him, I hope that he has found peace in the next world.

Haward Soper