The daughter of a devoted couple from Dumbarton who died within 48 hours of each other has spoken of her parents’ joy for life.

Robert Chalmers died from dementia and his wife, Betty, from a stroke, both aged 88.

The couple were well known for their association with the Dumbarton Academy FP football team, which won the Scottish Amateur Cup and a host of other trophies in the 1970s.

Bobby managed the team, and Betty supported her husband in the manner of many football wives during that era, by going along to the matches and washing the strips afterwards.

This week, daughter Gail McLellan said the family were always having “unforgettable” house parties for family, friends and for the team.

Gail added: “‘Unforgettable’ was the song sung as the large congregation left Bobby and Betty’s funeral service, conducted by the Rev Ian Johnston of Riverside Parish Church in Dumbarton, at Cardross Crematorium.

“We chose that song because that is what the parties were – unforgettable. We had wonderful parents and an unforgettable childhood.”

Bobby and Betty were from very different backgrounds. She was the privately-educated at the Cathedral School in Shanghai and only daughter of prosperous parents who owned a chain of bakery shops in China.

Betty moved to Scotland with her parents at the outbreak of the Second World War and continued her education at the then fee-paying Hermitage Primary School in Helensburgh.

She completed her secondary education at Hermitage Academy before learning shorthand and typing and taking a post with the Prudential Insurance Company in Dumbarton.

Bobby was the handsome son of a working-class family who lived in Station Road, Dumbarton.

He was educated at Dumbarton Academy, across the Common from his tenement home, and became an apprentice with the South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB).

The couple met at night school in the Academy and went on to get married 66 years ago in Cardross Parish Church, in the village where Betty lived with her parents.

Their first home was in Castlegreen Street, Dumbarton, and the couple then moved to High Mains, where Betty gave birth to their three daughters, Linda, Gail and Carol.

The Chalmers house was a busy, happy home as the family grew up, and the daughters got married and had their own children, six grandsons and three grand-daughters.

Those grandchildren in turn had their own children and their 11 great-grandchildren gave Bobby and Betty great pleasure.

Highlights of that childhood were the many family holidays at a caravan in Berwick-upon-Tweed and summer breaks ‘doon the watter’ in Rothesay.

Bobby and Betty also spent a number of holidays in Jersey with their good friends, Pat and Bernard Kennedy, whom they had known since their schooldays.

When he became too old to continue as coach of ‘the Accies’, Bobby took up bowling and was made president of Dumbarton Bowling Club – “The Big Green”.

Gail said: “Football was a major part of my father’s life and he loved it. He liked bowls, and enjoyed the sport and the company of the people he met at the club, but he was forever a football man.”

And it was that dedication and shrewd management which led to unbridled joy when Dumbarton Academy FP captain Billy Muir lifted the Scottish Amateur Cup at Boghead Park in 1971.

The team which beat Mearns Amateurs that memorable day was Harry Skinner, Buchanan Campbell, Jim Brannan, Scott Lettis, Jim Kennedy, Billy Muir, Bobby Davenport, Jim Leitch, Ian Hulme, Bobby Dowdles, David Brooks and Eddie King.

Bobby’s influence with the team remains to this day with league and cup glory continuing under gaffer Michael Dickie and his backroom staff.

Accies’ honorary president, David Muir, said: “He was the most inspirational manager and, most importantly, a winner. He still regularly appeared on the Accies touchline after his retirement and his presence continued to lift our players to further glory.

“He is Mr Dumbarton Academy and his legacy reverberates to this day.

“A truly great man and a great lady.”