First female provost of Kirkintilloch; Born November 18, 1909; Died March 18, 2008. Jenny Coutts, who has died aged 98, was the first female provost of Kirkintilloch and when she died Kirkintilloch and Lenzie lost more than a well-kent and much respected figure; they lost someone who reflected the spirit of a different age, someone for whom service to others was not a motto but a way of life.
Janet Maxwell Barclay was born in Carnwath in 1909, the daughter of Gavin and Janet Barclay. Her father was the meal miller, her mother a teacher and they inspired her with a life-long love of music, literature and the countryside. After leaving Lanark Grammar, she completed a secretarial course and worked in the education offices at Bath Street in Glasgow. She met her husband, Willie, through the International Club. Although he had served as a regimental quartermaster sergeant during the First World War, both of them were committed pacifists during the Second World War.
In 1949, Willie and Jenny moved to Lenzie with their sons, very quickly becoming a part of the community. A few years later, a group of residents, dissatisfied with the council, suggested to Coutts that she should stand and, with "Hoots, Toots, Vote for Coutts" as her slogan, she was elected. Coutts represented the Lenzie ward as an independent councillor for 20 years and the respect and admiration she earned from her fellow councillors was reflected in her appointment as provost of Kirkintilloch in 1964. A year later she welcomed the Queen to the town. She firmly believed that party politics had no place in local councils - her own political principles were founded on a strong sense of justice and compassion.
Among her many commitments, she chaired 12 council committees, contributed to the influential Kilbrandon committee, started a branch of Save the Children, set up Abbeyfield retirement home in Lenzie and a lunch club in Hillhead, and served as a justice of the peace. In 1973 she was awarded an MBE for services to social work. When Coutts saw a need for something or "the job that couldn't be done", she rolled up her sleeves and she did it. She often joked about how people would cross the road as she approached, afraid of being persuaded into some kind of charitable action.
Even in her late eighties she organised a sponsored walk, covering all the local streets. She raised hundreds of pounds for Save the Children and even carried a notebook with her in which to note any problems she found, so that she might let the council know.
Coutts was a woman of fixed principles but with a mind open to new ideas; she disliked sloppy grammar and careless manners, but was not stuffy. She would laugh at herself when she told the story of how, on her appointment as provost, she wondered what glamorous events she might preside over; then she discovered that her first official duty was to open the new sewage works.
Coutts was green long before most people were aware that there was any danger of our wasting the Earth's resources. She loved gardening and grew her own vegetables and herbs into her nineties.
She was predeceased by her husband, Willie, in 1989, a few weeks before their 50th wedding anniversary. She is survived by her sons, Peter and Alan, grandchildren Kirsty, Alison and Jamie, and great granddaughter, Eva.
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