A diver whose body was recovered from the Moray Firth has been named as Andrew Rolph, an ex-detective with Grampian Police.
Rolph, 60, from the Bridge of Don area, was reported missing off Tarbat Ness in the Highlands at around 1pm on Sunday, July 28. His body was recovered by police divers on Monday.
Rolph, who had been due to talk at this year's Bloody Scotland festival in September, had worked with Grampian Police for 33 years, mainly providing scientific support in areas such as fingerprints, handwriting, fire investigation and facial identification. He was also in charge of fingerprinting all the deceased following the Piper Alpha disaster and heavily involved in the design and development of the R2S computerised system for recording crime scenes.
He is survived by his wife Hazel, 60, sons Paul, 38, and partner Jackie, Craig, 34, and wife Marinda and their children Lewis, 9, and Abbie, 6, and his mother Doreen.
His wife described him as a devoted husband, brilliant father and doting grandfather.
She said: "We had just celebrated our Ruby Wedding Anniversary in June and it has been a happy life. I couldn't have asked for a better husband and father. He was always there for us through good times and bad times. He was so thoughtful and a calming influence. When the boys were establishing their careers as an electrician and a painter and decorator he did everything he could to help them and has always been beyond generous with his time. He was so proud of them and we were of him too. He loved his grandchildren and had been planning a trip with them to London on Saturday which everyone was really excited about.
"Andrew has been taken from us too soon and we have been devastated by what has happened but he lived life to the full. He put 100% into everything he did. He joined the police force in 1972 and initially began his career in Fraserburgh. He loved his job and latterly worked as a Detective Inspector in forensics before returning as a civilian after 30 years' service. He then went on to be instrumental in the company Return to Scene (R2S). He loved everything about his job.
"He was an incredibly sporty person, played squash, ran marathons and was actively involved in participating and organising triathlons. He always trying to introduce sport to others and pass on his passion. He was always doing something whether it was cycling to work or out for a run, nothing stopped him.
"We would now ask that our privacy is respected and we are allowed time to grieve in peace. Funeral arrangements are to follow."
Brian Dillon, Managing Director of Return To Scene Ltd, said: "Andrew was responsible for all our forensics work. He was such an important and integral part of the business and we believe his expertise and reputation, which was massive, helped to put R2S on the map. In the years I worked with him I can only describe him as the ultimate professional and he went beyond providing a service.
"He loved what he did and was so conscientious. He has been a mentor to many of our younger staff and I am sure he would have gone on to inspire many others. Everybody loved working with him and he will be irreplaceable."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article