30-07-2025
Tributes paid to 'adored' Aberfoyle postmistress who fought to retain vital community services
Heartfelt tributes have been paid following the death of Ros Dingwall, who has been remembered as a much-loved pillar of the Aberfoyle community after she served as the village postmistress for 40 years.
Warm tributes have been paid following the death of Aberfoyle's long-standing Postmistress Ros Dingwall.
Ros had served the local community there for 40 years before she gave up the role earlier this year due to ill-health.
She owned and ran Aberfoyle Post Office since 1985.
She has passed away at the age of 77.
Ros grew up in the Waterfoot area of Glasgow and attended Broomlea School for girls in Glasgow from a young age until sixth year.
She then went to Strathclyde University where she graduated with honours in English.
She met Tom Dingwall whilst at university when the pair caught each other's attention across a lecture hall. They were married for 49 years until Tom passed away in 2019.
They had three daughters – Katriona 51 (Trina), Morven 50 and Tamsin 32 (Tami). Tami recently gave birth to Ros's first grandchild Bella, who is three-months-old.
Prior to starting their family, Ros and Tom lived in London where Ros worked as a teacher, in Harrod's Book Department and as a computer programmer for Harrod's.
In 1980 Ros took the children on a holiday and returned to discover that Tom had purchased the Riverside Inn, in Balloch, and sold the family home in Killearn. Ros jumped into that adventure and was the quiet calm who kept everyone in line after one too many.
Ros then bought the Post Office in 1985 and became Postmistress shortly after. It became a role that she deeply loved and fought hard to retain services for the community, through her activism with the Sub-Postmasters Union.
She was extremely focused on retaining banking services for those who are not online, and helped all of her older customers manage the change when all pensions had to be paid into an account.
She was also known to race over to Callander to catch up with the postman if something urgent missed the afternoon collection and she would track down incomplete addresses to make sure people got their Christmas cards and letters.
She loved being in the centre of the community and chatting to all her regulars, any four legged customer got a biscuit.
Outside of her Post Office role, Ros was also involved in a number of other local community groups In the 1980s, she was the Tawny Owl for Aberfoyle Brownies and was a member of the PTA for Aberfoyle Primary School and McLaren High School when her older and younger daughters were at school.
However her main commitment was to the Strathard Community Council, where she held various roles over 30 years. She was instrumental in the creation of the Trossachs Community Trust that raised the funding to retain the garage in Aberfoyle.
Following her sad passing, Ros' daughters said: 'The community saw one side of our mum, but there was much more to her. She loved to dance and made it to her last class shortly before she passed where she danced from her wheelchair.
'She loved walking with her dogs in the woods, and further afield with her walking group. She would get the giggles and we'd be laughing with her with no idea what she found so funny. She was obsessed with her word puzzles and hitting genius level every day. She loved to read, and always fell asleep at night with her latest book.
'She started going on holiday to Dornoch as a small child and continued going there annually until recently – she dreamt of retiring there.
'She was actually quiet and shy, and a bit of a homebody, but when she believed in something she was single minded in making it happen.'
They added: 'We're fiercely proud of her and are grateful for the time she got to spend with her granddaughter Bella.
'Over the last three months she had lots of messages from friends and customers with memories of how she had helped and supported them, we were really happy that she got the chance to understand just what she meant to the community.'
Ros' final wish was to see the Post Office in Aberfoyle retained for the community. Her daughters will continue to work with the Post Office and will issue an update as soon as possible.
All are invited to celebrate her life at her funeral which will be held at Killearn Kirk at 11am on Thursday, August 7. Attendees are kindly asked to wear a splash of her favourite colour, purple, in her memory.
