We are sad to announce the death of Paxton House Trustee, Herbert Coutts, on 11 April 2022.

He was a founding member of The Paxton Trust in 1988 and has been instrumental in every aspect of its development since that date.

An archaeologist by profession, he worked at Dundee Museum, then was Edinburgh’s City Curator for twenty-five years, during which time he was responsible for the management of the Council’s museums, galleries and monuments. He brought a string of hugely popular “blockbuster” exhibitions to the city, built up a network of international links, and oversaw several major museum and heritage capital projects. In the last decade of his career, he served as Edinburgh’s Director of Culture and Leisure, leading a diverse department of 1,000 staff that provided cultural, sport and leisure services. He encouraged new thinking about, and approaches to the city’s cultural and leisure ecologies.

He retired early in 2007 devoted much of his time to heritage and arts charities, including thePaxton House Trust. In addition to his invaluable work at Paxton, he was joint chairman of the Battle of Prestonpans (1745) Heritage Trust, Chairman of the Scottish Battlefields Trust, a member of the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust,  the Dunbar Community Council, the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society and chairman of Dial-a-Journey, offering specialist transport to people with mobility disabilities.

We will miss his guidance and his expertise and well as his energy and vision.