~ Chapter Twenty-One ~
Bonnie Scotland
Over the course of his life, Tom developed a love for Scotland. It was a love that probably originated during his stints in the Navy when he travelled round the country and sailed her coasts. And it was a love that was reinforced in return visits to Scotland years later. These photographs were taken during one such visit in 1959. On the left, Tom and Gwen are with Pamela at the Scottish Border. On the right, they are on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle, with a view of Arthur’s Seat in the background.
In fact, the lure of Bonnie Scotland was so strong that Tom decided to spend his last years there. Around 1970, he, Gwen and Vera moved to the Perthshire town of Crieff, where they lived in a top-floor flat. Not long after, they moved again, this time into a tiny cottage within a laird’s estate near the village of Madderty, a few miles to the east of Crieff. Then, wanting to be closer to Perth because of Tom’s failing health, they made a final move to the village of Methven.
Tom was seventy-six when he died on 31st March 1976 in Bridge of Earn Hospital, near Perth. He was cremated at Perth Crematorium.
Soon after, Gwen left Perth for Churt in Surrey so that she could be close to Pamela, who was living in Farnham at the time. In April 2002, at the age of ninety-two, she died in Frimley Hospital, Surrey.
Pamela still lives in Farnham with her second husband, Stan Jarvis; Anthony lives in Staffordshire; and Mike in Vancouver. As for Tom’s first son, Derry, he and Mary went on to have another six children after Ann Marie, including Brendan, who is a co-author of this family history. Sadly, Derry died in 1965 at the age of only thirty-nine.
The last words on Tom come from the childhood memories of Pamela’s son, Tony Thompson, who remembers his grandfather in Perthshire as a taciturn man “who smoked heavily – Players Navy Cut, then later Sovereign – and was a regular in the local pubs drinking bitter and dark rum.” They conjure up the image of a gruff, old salt, a veteran of two World Wars, sitting in the pub and reminiscing about his Navy days: all the ships he served on, all the places he saw and all the “oppos” he sailed with.
Tom was seventy-six when he died on 31st March 1976 in Bridge of Earn Hospital, near Perth. He was cremated at Perth Crematorium.
Soon after, Gwen left Perth for Churt in Surrey so that she could be close to Pamela, who was living in Farnham at the time. In April 2002, at the age of ninety-two, she died in Frimley Hospital, Surrey.
Pamela still lives in Farnham with her second husband, Stan Jarvis; Anthony lives in Staffordshire; and Mike in Vancouver. As for Tom’s first son, Derry, he and Mary went on to have another six children after Ann Marie, including Brendan, who is a co-author of this family history. Sadly, Derry died in 1965 at the age of only thirty-nine.
The last words on Tom come from the childhood memories of Pamela’s son, Tony Thompson, who remembers his grandfather in Perthshire as a taciturn man “who smoked heavily – Players Navy Cut, then later Sovereign – and was a regular in the local pubs drinking bitter and dark rum.” They conjure up the image of a gruff, old salt, a veteran of two World Wars, sitting in the pub and reminiscing about his Navy days: all the ships he served on, all the places he saw and all the “oppos” he sailed with.