A truly remarkable tribute was there for all to see last week in memory of a “very popular” Perth biker.
Steve Gilruth passed away suddenly last month and as a tribute around 40 bikers followed his hearse through the Fair City on the way to his service at Perth Crematorium on Thursday, October 18.
Steve, who was raised in Luncarty, was just eight days shy of his 54th birthday when he suffered a serious heart attack while he was paying for wood at a sawmill.
Steve had just set up a landscaping business with his nephew James Stephen.
Cherie (32), from Perth, is one of five of Steve’s kids which includes Carrie (34), Stephen (24), Ben (nine) and step daughter Anna (six).
She paid her own tribute to her late father.
She said: “He’s always been very popular.
“Everywhere I’d go I’d hear ‘you’re Steve’s daughter eh?’
“He was very well known and well liked.
“He was tall, slim, bald man with a magnificent goatee beard.
“He was larger than life and a keen self-taught musician as he played the guitar at his mates ‘jamming’ session every week, and also drums now and again.
“He was a grafter and enjoyed working on landscapes and had a dry, witty sense of humour.
“He was very funny indeed.”
The hearse left James Carcary Funeral Directors in Canal Street, with the bikers in tow, at 3.15pm and headed on to South Street and followed up Tay Street before cutting down through the centre via Kinnoull Street.
The service then drove up the Caledonian Road after turning at the South Inch, before heading to The Perth Crematorium for the 4pm service.
The bikers convey tribute was an idea from two of his friends and pays homage to one of Steve’s biggest loves in life - motorbikes.
“He’s been riding bikes since he sat his test really in the very late 90s,” Cherie continued.
“He mostly liked a Japanese bike but he had so many.
“His latest bike was a Ducati 900 Monster.
“His hobby was buying and selling bikes, doing them up.
“It [the tribute] was arranged by his friends big Jim Dewar and Rory Dow and it just grew arms and legs.
“It was a mix of his friends.
“Most of his biking friends and some old friends who borrowed bikes, like his nephew.”
Cherie, via a post on social media, said: “Can I give a huge thank you to everyone who attended my dad’s funeral, and especially to all his biking friends who gave him a convoy escort from the funeral home to the crematorium.
“It was the send off he would have wanted.”
