Margaret Sinclair

died July 19, 2006 THE death of Susan Margaret Sinclairwill have been received with great sadness by all who knew her and admired her, including her immediate family - younger sister, nieces and great-nieces - and an extended family worldwide of former members of Glasgow University Air Squadron.

Her early days were spent in Ayrshire, where her father was a schoolteacher in Maybole, and she went on to take a secretarial course in Glasgow.

Margaret became secretary to the first commanding officer on the formation of GUAS (now the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Air Squadron) on January 13, 1941, beginning a unique commitment that ended formally in 1981, after 40 years of distinguished service to one of Glasgow's military flying units.

Her role in the squadron was farwider and the impact of her quiet personality more significant than her job title might suggest. COs inevitably come and go but Miss Sinclair remained to carry on the ethos and maintain morale.

When the squadron flew from Scone during the immediate post-war period, she was its presence in Glasgow in the town headquarters at Park Circus and it was always a welcoming and reassuring one for GUAS student members, most of whom were still teenagers.

With the continuous business of staff postings in and out, Margaret was the source of continuity, maintaining the necessary links with the universities.

Miss Sinclair - I would doubt if anyone would have ever addressed her in the familiar in those days - was a truly remarkable lady and a real influence on "her" charges, those young men (men only until more recent times) who, in addition to their studies, took to the air, learning to fly with what was one of three university military units.

That her quiet personality impinged indelibly upon them was testified to by the cards she received each Christmas from so many of them from all parts, and how they went out of their way to visit herwhen anywhere near Glasgow.

Many of her alumni rose to the highest ranks in both civilian and military organisations. Generals, air marshals and governors of banks came to visit. She delighted in their calls and was a lovely hostess at Dalquarran.

She had maintained a meticulous record of each annual intake and kept it up to date: a document which recorded the subsequent sacrifice of many during the Second World Wa r.

One of her "boys" recalled: "She was always Miss Sinclair to us mere student pilots (you have to remember that we were typically about 18 years old and she was some 30 years older, occupying a position of some authority and due some respect), but it was she who to a large extent ran the show.

"We had a commanding officer and a CFI (chief flying instructor) but when it came to getting something done (anything from a summer camp to a dining-in night) it was Margaret who would make it happen, and I suspect that on all matters other than flying aeroplanes, these two did what she told them to.

"She did, of course, work with many COs and CFIs and I guess something in the order of 1000 student pilots, and I am sure that all of them will be sad to hear of her passing."

Such an impact was accomplished by a modest, gentle lady quietly going about her business efficiently, effectively and with great humanity, and not, as some might assume, by force of personality.

After retiring from the squadron, for 11 years she served as secretary to Age Concern in Clarkston and took up bridge.

Margaret Sinclair in some ways represented an era that has gone but let us hope that the example she displayed will never go.

Well did she merit the award of an MBE.