James Thom
Born: February 25, 1955;
Died: July 3, 2024
James Thom, who has died aged 69, was a dentist with a distinguished career spanning over 40 years who died in untimely fashion on Paddy Slacks Yarrow valley, Selkirk, pursuing one of his many favourite pastimes, cycling.
Born in Bellshill maternity hospital, he was the youngest child of three, born to Jean and James Robertson Thom, both schoolteachers. He shared the family home in Bellshill with his elder brother and sister, David and Mary.
After graduating from Glasgow University Dental Hospital in 1980, he left Scotland to practise in Yellowknife, Canada.
There he met Canadian Pat Spence and four years later they were married in Chelsea, Quebec.
Returning to Scotland in 1985 Pat and Jim proudly raised three children, Brynmor (born in Canada), Calum, and Meghan, in the family home in Melrose.
Jim applied for and was accepted for dual Canadian citizenship in 1985, his rationale being that Margot Kidder was handing out the certificates that year. In 1989 he became an elder at Melrose Parish Kirk.
Throughout Jim's life, his family was the most important aspect. They brought him love, joy and celebration. He was immensely proud of them. An amazing father, he generated much fun, laughter and activity, not just for them but for many other families who came under his joyful spell.
He had an unparalleled enthusiasm and passion for just about everything. With his alternative vocabulary, boundless energy and love for food, he was the life and soul and organiser of the many gatherings and sports in which he participated. He became an instant lifelong friend for many.
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He loved playing rugby at Melrose then took up coaching and refereeing. Golf and all the camaraderie it brought was another huge part of his life and he enjoyed sharing the love of the fairways with family and friends. Jim was exuberant in everything he took part in. He played squash like a second row forward going into a ruck and may be the only man to have torn his Achilles playing table tennis. He ran marathons, and road biked all over the Borders.
When his eldest son became Melrosian in 2005, he took up horse riding and was heavily involved in the Melrose festival committee thereafter. Jim was an avid reader and a regular attendee with learned friends at a local book club, although it may have been more aptly called a wine club on occasions.
He took lessons and learned to fish for salmon and trout on his beloved river Tweed but he never did learn how to row a boat successfully. He had recently been very excited to be accepted into the ancient Trout Anglers Club of Edinburgh of 1899. As he explained "no riff raff there"
He took guided walks round the Trimontium roman fort near Melrose, although perhaps, many visitors learned more about weighted nymphs and tippets than the amphitheatre and garrison ditches.
His insatiable thirst for new horizons led him into one more brotherhood of adventure, mountain climbing. Many Munros beckoned from the central gully of Ben Lui in the middle of winter, to Toubkal in Morocco (4,167 metres). His prowess at map reading was marvelled at by his companions. "He never knew where he was, where he had been or where he was going but he was having the time of his life!" Having the time of his life, was the mantra by which he lived.
Missed dreadfully by us all, he was "A man amongs't men" Wherever he is, I hope there is cake.
Michael Charles Hogg
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