November 2019

From
0ur Locum
Rev Jim Cutler
Dear Friends at Eddleston Parish Church and Peebles: Old Parish Church,
I’ve been asked to write for the Church Magazine, so I thought I should inform you
about myself and give you a kind of autobiography of myself. So here goes.
I was born in Hamilton and brought up in Motherwell where I went to school at Dalziel
High School. On leaving school I became a Structural Engineer working for Colville
Constructional and Engineering Co. Ltd and then with Lanark County Council which
became Strathclyde Regional Council. I’m still a Chartered Engineer and Member of
the Institute of Structural Engineers. (C. Eng. M. I. Struct. E.) although it’s been
some 30 years since I’ve practiced. I am, however, a General Trustee of the Church
of Scotland and I’m often asked to visit and cast my eye over Church Building all
over Scotland with the hope of offering advice.
Before I went into the Ministry and before my training, my late wife Annis, my two
children, Stewart and Jillian and I lived in Carluke. We were members of Kirkton Parish
Church where I was an elder and Annis and I were instrumental in forming a Boys’
Brigade Company (4 th Carluke Company). It was through my involvement with the
Boys’ Brigade that I realised a call to the ministry.
I studied at Glasgow University, Trinity College where I graduated with a Bachelor of
Divinity Degree. I served my Probationary time at Lanark: St. Nicholas Parish Church
with the Very Reverend John McIndoe.
My first Ministerial Change was Kilmun (St. Munn’s) linked with Strone and
Ardentinny which is about 8 miles from Dunoon. I served there for about 9 years
before moving on to Coldstream linked with Eccles where I served for another 9
years or so. We moved then to Blackmount linked with Culter linked with Libberton
and Quothquan from which I retired in October 2011. The Manse for this charge
was in Biggar and both Annis and I became quite involved also with Biggar Parish
Church.
While we lived in Coldstream and in the year 2,000 it was discovered that Annis
had Breast Cancer. She went through all the surgery and Chemo Therapy after
which she led an almost normal life for about 11 years. It was in the year that I
retired and we’d moved to live in Peebles that it was discovered that the Breast
Cancer was present in her bones (apparently the normal place to which it spreads).
That time was very painful for her. Later it was discovered in her liver and she had
further Chemo Therapy. However, she fell and broke her femur and never really
recovered her mobility and she died in March 2015 from Pneumonia. Of course I
miss her terribly.
Now I live on my own in Peebles and after about 4 years of missing my wife, I
decided that I could still work for my Saviour and his Church. And so I was Interim
Moderator and Locum for about ten Months at Carnwath and Carstairs Parish