DUMBARTON Football Club were saddened by the death of one of their directors Callum Hosie, aged 73, following a long illness.

The announcement was made on the club’s website by fellow director Alan Findlay.

Callum and his son Andrew bought the majority shareholding in Dumbarton from Neil Rankine in 2007 and formed Brabco 736 Ltd. The company still holds 75 per cent of the club’s shares.

Callum Hosie remained a director of Brabco, while Colin Hosie, his cousin, is the club’s vice-chairman, having previously held the role of chairman.

Callum was born in Dumbarton on April 28, 1945, to Andrew, a welder at Denny’s shipyard and Nettie (nee Hutchinson), who worked in Edwards outfitters on Dumbarton High Street. He grew up at 22 Wallace Street – a long goal kick from Dumbarton Football Club stadium.

He went to Knoxland school but was often in trouble. His mum could often be heard saying, “My heart is roasted with that boy”. His dad used to say he should have been a glazier after spending time repairing windows that Callum had smashed playing football in the street.

As a teenager, he loved driving round in his dad’s Ford Zephyr and took it as a challenge to see how many of his friends he could get in. His wider family still stay in the Dumbarton area, cousins Hamish, Colin, Katrina, Moira and Margaret from the Hosie side and Isabel Cantely from his mother’s side, the Hutchinson’s.

Callum served his apprenticeship at Dewrance in Dumbarton and at the age of 19 was relocated to the new town of Skelmersdale in Lancashire when the Dumbarton factory closed, along with many other Dumbarton men. He rose to Works director before being made redundant at setting up his own successful valve manufacturing business, HH Valves.

He met his future wife, Pat, in Southport in 1965 and they were married in 1969. Half of Dumbarton descended on Southport for the wedding and Callum was paraded down Lord Street in his underpants. They were together for 53 years, 49 of them married, and had two children, Andrew, 45 and Alison, 43. He had one granddaughter, Ella – the apple of his eye.

He loved his football and played to a high standard. His introduction to Dumbarton came as a young boy in the early 1950’s when he attended Dumbarton games at Boghead with his father and grandfather, James Hosie.

He was also a Rangers supporter, and had left early on the day of the Ibrox disaster in Jan 1971 having previously been stood close to Stairway 13. On moving to England, he became an Everton season ticket holder for 40 years.

In 2008, he got the opportunity to invest in Dumbarton Football Club and led a consortium who bought the majority shareholding. This followed a long history of Hosie family involvement in the club; his grandfather was an original ‘A’ shareholder and his uncle, John Hosie, was club secretary for many years.

He joined his cousin Colin Hosie on the board and formed lasting friendships with Alan Jardine, John Kane and the late Gilbert Lawrie – true Dumbarton FC men.

He experienced some great moments, notably the Irn Bru bus through the town when DFC won the Scottish Third Division in 2009. He was too ill to see them relegated.