Thursday, 16 January 2025

Rally - Catherine Higgins

Another good friend gone …. Rallying in Scotland has lost another lifelong supporter and good friend. The name Catherine Higgins won’t be familiar to many of you, but she was one of those behind-the-scenes figures without whom the sport simply couldn’t function. She was as much a part of rallying as the tops seeds and the last crew running on the road.

Catherine and her husband Ian were members of Scottish Sporting Car Club and were both active participants in early club activities later graduating towards organising and running events.

That led to Catherine taking up the job of Secretary at the Royal Scottish Automobile Club in Blythswood Square in Glasgow where she was co-opted on to the annual Scottish Rally organising team as Rally Secretary. A job she fulfilled with good cheer and good humour for over thirty years. Naturally that led to other ‘jobs’ on other RSAC ‘Tours’ and ‘Targas’ and her skills and knowledge were also called upon farther afield by the Pirelli Rally in Carlisle and the British Rally Championship itself. And yet she didn’t neglect her SSCC duties which stretched back to the original Trossachs Rally days over 40 years ago and continued to assist with ongoing local car club events. And if she wasn’t organising she was out with Ian Marshalling.

It is said that patience is a virtue and if that’s true she was one of the most virtuous people around the sport. It is to her credit that I think I only heard her swear once, and that was under her breath so few could hear, but in a sport like rallying and having to deal with rally competitors on such a regular basis, that surely is a mark of her forgiving nature and helpful character. Although I am led to understand that her vocabulary was rather more extensive when amongst close friends!

Catherine passed away last Monday (13th) after a short illness and those close friends and her family will be distraught at this news. Our thoughts must be with them at this time.

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