Brian McCartney

Posted: September 30, 2025

BRIAN MCCARTNEY, a former deputy chief reporter of the Daily Record, and a legend in Scottish journalism, died in a Dundee hospital on August 28 [2025], after a short illness. He was 79. His family, partner Joy and three daughters Claire, Estelle, and Lynne were at his hospital bedside. The family gave fulsome and well-deserved praise to the medical teams who had cared for Brian.

A celebration of his life was held in Carnoustie Golf Club Hotel on September 10, with celebrant Val presiding over an assembly of friends and old colleagues. His daughters gave a look at life with a Celtic-mad dad who said if he had had another three daughters their initials would have completed the Club’s name. They praised Joy, his partner of more than two decades, for her love and care of Brian after their mother, Alice, died.

Former senior Daily Mirror reporter and Brian’s close friend, Ramsay Smith, together with another colleague and friend, Bob Dow (former Daily Record Aberdeen bureau chief), recounted highlights of Brian’s career and life in an emotional eulogy. Ramsay asked: “How do we truly capture Brian’s career as a journalist as we reflect on his great life? The heartfelt, glowing tributes to him bear testament to the reputation he had earned among colleagues and competitors alike. He was the journalists’ journalist.”

Brian began his working life as a secondary school teacher, before switching to journalism with the Courier Dundee, the Scotsman, Sunday Standard, the Daily Record, Today and the Record again. He had also run his own news agency. He was one of the Daily Record’s reporting team which won the Bank of Scotland Press Awards News Team of the Year in 1990, for articles following 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Ramsay reminded everyone of Brian’s work at Lockerbie, at the Enniskillen bombing, and how he traced alleged Protestant extremists sitting in a dingy pub under a Red Hand flag. It could have caused bother, but Ramsay said Brian had them eating out of his hand. There were many other stories from a career spanning more than 40 years. Ramsay added: “Brian made many visits to London where be became a well-kent and welcome member of the Fleet Street gang, even taking membership of our spiritual home, the aptly named Vagabonds drinking club.”

Bob Dow recalled Brian’s exclusive when he traced a tanker captain whose ship went on to rocks on Shetland, threatening an ecological disaster. Bob spoke of Brian in fulsome terms as a friend, adding that Brian was never a small man – he enjoyed holding a knife and fork and a glass of something. “A real trencherman and bon viveur.” Bob recalled that Brian once persuaded a chef to make him a bacon sandwich before an office Christmas lunch. The harassed chef, who had a a packed restaurant, said he only did it because he, too, was from Dundee. Brian still cleared his lunch plate.

AMP committee member and former Record news editor, Malcolm Speed, who was unable to attend the event but watched the streaming service, said: “He was my friend as well as a tremendous reporter, and although these are well-used words, he was a giant and a legend. He was someone who was always in my team for the big story.” Anna Smith, the Record’s former chief reporter, said of her former colleague and long-time friend: “Brian was a giant of a figure in Scottish journalism. He was hugely respected for his professionalism, and much loved for his integrity.”