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Spring / Summer 2010 Registered Charity No. SC 009009 Tribute to Roy H Thomson Chair of the Friends of Aberdeen University Library He was a member of the Friends of University Court. He returned to Aberdeen University Library for more Aberdeen University as a mature than 36 years and Chairman of our student and was awarded the Post- Executive Committee for over 17, a Graduate degree of MLitt. (With truly magnificent record of service Distinction) only last summer. during which he led the Committee and the Friends with sound common sense Roy was an instinctive Liberal and his and always with good humour. contribution to his party was enormous, --------------- both locally and nationally. As local Roy Thomson was born at Cults in Councillor for Cults, Bieldside and Aberdeen on 27th August 1933. He Milltimber he served on Aberdeen was educated at Aberdeen Grammar District Council for fourteen years from School and then at Aberdeen 1974 and was Leader of the Council for University where he found two loves part of that time. He was a Past which were to last for the rest of his President of the Scottish Executive of life. The first was the University of the Liberal Democrats and also for Roy Thomson Aberdeen and the second, more many years a member of the Federal importantly, was one of his fellow Executive. He acted as a trusted agent students in Psychology, Nancy for Malcolm Bruce, MP, for four It is with great sadness and Craig. Roy and Nancy graduated with successful General Election campaigns. appreciation that we have to report the Honours in 1955 and were married in death of Roy Thomson, The following 1956. Roy’s commitment to Nancy, Roy was a Knight Commander of the tribute is contributed by Graham their three daughters, Judy, Sophie and Order of St. John, a Past President of Hunter, successor as Chair to Roy. Helen, and their families was total Aberdeen Mental Health Association throughout his life. and of Aberdeen Rotary Club. He acted At the first Friends’ Committee as Marketing Director and was a long- meeting held after the death of our After University, Roy completed his term supporter of Aberdeen Chairman, Roy Thomson, I paid tribute National Service (1955-57) with the 1st International Youth Festival, a past to Roy in the following terms: ‘ I am Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders, Chairman of Kaleidoscope and of the sure that all of you, like me, still feel a seeing active service as an Intelligence Aberdeen International Children’s great sense of shock, loss and regret Officer in Cyprus. Festival. He was also a Director of when faced with the fact of Roy’s death Scottish Ballet (Chairman 1983-87) on 29 November last year. Somehow, In 1957 he joined Rowntree & Co. as and a Governor of BBC Scotland. part of me still expects Roy to come an Assistant Psychologist and stayed ---------------- through that door and, quietly and with them until 1960 when he joined unassumingly, take the Chair and guide the family motor business of Thomsons Roy was a quiet self-effacing man, with us wisely and sensitively through our of Cults, first as a Director and then as a complete absence of self-seeking. He deliberations. We owe him a great debt Managing Director from 1963 until could be as tough and determined as and we will miss him.’ 1986. anyone when pursuing a point in which ---------------- he believed strongly, but he preferred The passage of time has not diminished That brief summary does little justice to make progress by co-operation rather that sense of loss and indebtedness. to Roy’s life. The list of groups and than confrontation, and by discussion organisations in which he played a rather than division. By his death the Roy exemplified the well-known leading role is as wide and extensive as Friends of Aberdeen University Library saying, ‘If you want a job done well, the list of his own personal have lost a valued Chairman and the give it to a busy person’. It is clear interests. His lifelong interest in the University of Aberdeen has lost a from his CV that Roy was a busy mountains, hill-walking and skiing led valued friend. person all his life and yet somehow he to his being the founder of Aberdeen managed to find time to give support Mountain Rescue Association. I have and leadership to a multitude of already mentioned his service to the Graham C. Hunter causes. That support was invariably Friends of Aberdeen University Library Chairman, The Friends long-term and committed. and he also served for a time on the of Aberdeen University Library 1 Editorial Changes FRIENDS’ EVENTS Date for your Diary As from the next issue of the FAUL News you’ll see a new name for your Editor, Georgia THE FRIENDS OF Brooker. ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Georgia is a member of the the Summer Meeting and AGM Library Collections and Documentation teams and is Thursday 27 May currently involved in the production of HeadLines, the new Queen Mother Library Seminar Room electronic magazine covering Old Aberdeen items of interest to users of the Library and IT services. You may AGM at 7.00 pm have noticed that I have recently followed at 7.30 pm by included some of HeadLines articles in our own newsletter for Celebrating Scott’s Poetry: those of you who don’t have easy Walter Scott, ‘The Lady of the Lake’ and the Bernard C. access to the internet or who Lloyd Collection prefer the printed word. by Dr Ali Lumsden Having edited the Friends’ Senior Lecturer, Department of English newsletter for well over 20 years, beginning when it was a double- sided cyclostyled sheet of paper, I’ve tried to develop it with a more modern look, plus colour and images, and, I hope, full of items I felt were of interest to you. Since taking early retirement I no longer have the same contacts and access to material – or the time! – and with a new face at the helm in Georgia you will All Welcome be well served. Light Refreshments will be served after the meeting Many thanks to all past contributors and, especially, to ---------------------------------------------------------- Mike and Caroline Craig of the Reprographics Unit, who, for Autumn / Winter 2010 Meeting almost all of my many years designed, put together and had full details to follow the newsletter printed. November at 7.30 pm Georgia is used to providing informative articles on Library Old Aberdeen matters for HeadLines and will continue this in the newsletter. I ‘Fearsome Engines’ [printing] know I have left the magazine in by good hands and that you will see a fresh enthusiasm and new Howard Chandler angles and perspectives. Professor of Engineering Meantime I shall enjoy the surprises of each issue and look All Welcome forward to a ‘good read’. Light Refreshments will be served after the meeting Christine Miller 2 REPORTS ON Castles owned a townhouse in Edinburgh, Cluny Estates had about seven No. 4 St Andrews Square. FRIENDS’ castles scattered about Scotland. Cluny Castle was acquired by John Other plans in the Cluny Estate ACTIVITIES Gordon, I of Cluny, after the 1745 Papers include: Jacobite Rebellion but it did not Church Buildings Autumn / Winter 2009 Meeting start out as the family seat. The first In 1840 John Gordon was of the family to take an interest in approached about Buckie Church From Castle to Croft to Cowshed: the castle was John Gordon, IV of by the heritors of Cluny. Plans to the architecture of the Cluny Cluny, the Colonel. He began to exist for Midmar, Slains and Estates, by Nicola Mills restore the castle as a family home, Auldearn manses, which were probably in the 1830s. John Smith, rebuilt in the 1850s. Midmar Kirk an Aberdeen was refurbished in 1912. architect whose other work Utility Buildings included These plans include dovecots and rebuilding ice houses, farmhouses and crofts; Balmoral, also schools for the Western Isles, refurbished Slains and Corrennie. Hotel plans Cluny Castle. remain for Slains Lodge and When Colonel Collieston Marine Hotel. John died in 1858 (reputedly There are two quarries on Cluny Cluny Castle the wealthiest commoner in land, including Corrennie from Scotland), his only surviving child where the pink granite is still Nicola Mills is a freelance archivist and heir, Captain John Gordon, supplied. funded by the Cluny Trust to oversaw completion of the produce a full listing and catalogue restoration work. The lodge and Estate Plans gateway at Cluny were used in the These include some drawn by of the Gordons of Cluny papers, film The Queen (2006) as the established architects. Buckie was a deposited with the University of gateway of Balmoral. planned new town and the papers Aberdeen. In November, using contain a map dated 1861. Captain materials from Special Libraries & The castle remained relatively John and later Lady Cathcart built Archives and some local unchanged until 1926 when a fire new Buckie with broad, spacious collections, she gave a well which destroyed two wings and a streets and three-bay houses attended meeting of the Friends a chapel necessitated repairs. described as having all the details fascinating account of the range of Aberdeen architect George Bennett money could buy. architecture that is found across the Mitchell was consulted, and vast estates of Cluny. Among the produced designs for all the fixtures The Cluny Estate papers papers are maps, plans and and fittings for the chapel as well as demonstrate the quiet impact of the architectural drawings relating to for the staff bedrooms damaged by Cluny Estates on the architecture of every type of building found on the the fire.

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