Alexander Lees Cathro

Born in Dundee, Scotland, Alex (known as "Sandy" to his British friends and family) always had a passion for the sea. As a teenager, he embarked on a career with the British Merchant Navy, which took him from his native Scotland on an adventure around the world.

In a career highlight, he was awarded the Gold-Headed Cane, for Master of the first ocean-going vessel to reach the Port of Montreal without a stopover, in the new year. But it was an earlier posting as Navigating Officer and Second Mate on the MV Avon Bridge that would prove more significant. At London's Heathrow Airport, en route to the ship, he met Alice Victoria Mollison, the serving Radio Officer on the same vessel. They married on 1 November, 1975, and were together for 45 years until her passing in 2020.

Eventually they settled near the port of Houston to raise a family. Alex swapped merchant vessels for family fishing trips along the Dickinson Bayou and in Galveston Bay. With shipping still in his blood, he worked as a Marine Surveyor and Claims Adjustor well into his seventies. Texas truly became his home - he loved the weather, the food and most of all, the people. This lifelong mariner who left Scotland as a young lad was a Texan through and through.

Alex is survived by his children, Sophie and Christian, and his grandchildren, Julia Alice and Noah Alexander. They miss their Captain Grandad.

The family has requested a private cremation and internment service. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), a UK registered charity that saves lives at sea.

https://rnli.org