Jack Brewster, of Boclair Farm, passed away in February after a short illness, aged 96 years.

A family man through and through, he leaves his wife of over 70 years, Marion, and their family of Marlene, Anne, David and John, plus 10 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Brought up at Shawhead Farm, Coatbridge, he was the second eldest of seven, with two brothers and four sisters. This imbued him with a love of dairy farming and black and white cows in particular.

His late father, David Brewster, had the Hattrick prefix and was a well-known breeder in his time, registering animals almost at the beginning of the first herd book. Subsequently, Jack was given his first British Friesian calf aged 13, which fuelled his lifelong passion for breeding good cows.

Jack was a past chairman of Monklands YFC, where he met Marion, his future wife and they married in May, 1952. The following year, Jack was presented with the opportunity to farm in his own right at Boclair, having previously managed his uncle’s farm.

He began with two pairs of horses and then acquired a Fordson tractor at a later date. He started his own pedigree herd at this time, with the nucleus coming from his father’s herd. One of his earliest successes, was at the Glasgow Dairy Show, winning the supreme Friesian championship in 1963.

Away from the farm, Jack was heavily involved in the formation of the Scottish Dairy Cattle Association in 1978 and served as chairman for its first two years from inception. He also served as chairman of the local and area branch of NFU Scotland and as a director of the Scottish Milk Marketing Board.

He served on the Holstein Friesian Society's show and sale committee for eight years, its breed development committee for six years and was its chairman for two years, before achieving the honour of becoming president in 1990.

His extensive knowledge of the breed saw him judge all major shows both in the UK and internationally. Then, in 2020, he was extremely proud to be presented by the current breed chairman, by this time Holstein UK and Ireland, John Jamieson, with The Holstein UK Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jack always enjoyed welcoming farmers, young farmers, school children and parties from abroad and hosting open days to view the prize-winning Boclair herd. In later years, whilst taking more of a back seat, the Boclair herd continued to flourish with his guidance and was extremely successful in the Scottish Club's herd competitions and achieved Master Breeder awards in 2005 and 2016. In 2011, was reserve in the UK Premier Herd competition and went on to win it in 2017.

With more free time, Jack also became involved with the local community, serving on the board of the local school, community council, and was very honoured to be president of the annual Campsie Show.

He enjoyed nothing more than spending time with his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and going on cruises with Marion where they would get dressed up and dance the night away.

Jack grew up in an era of entire herds being milked by hand, but went on to witness the evolution of the Boclair herd being milked by robots. In his inimitable style and with a twinkle in his eye, he would just smile, shake his head and have a wee chuckle to himself ...