Fife-based sculptor and stained glass expert Thomas Halliday, Scotland's oldest working artist, has died aged 96.
Only last month, he had two of his latest works accepted for exhibition at the Museum of Flight at East Fortune, near Haddington.
The son of a grain merchant, he won a scholarship to Glasgow School of Art, and taught at Prestwick High School and Ayr Academy before taking up an appointment as principal of the art department at Dundee High School in 1941. He remained in post until he retired in 1965.
His first stained glass commission, in 1927, for a church in Ayr, made him #5 and was recently valued at more than #20,000.
A founder member of the Guild of Aviation Artists, Mr Halliday was also a member of the Society of Marine Artists. Awarded the MBE in 1963, many of his works are held in private collections throughout the world, and his pieces were exhibited by the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy, as well as in Italy, Poland, Canada, the US and South Africa. He also spent long periods working in France.
Among his greatest successes was a recent invitation from the Royal Scottish Academy to exhibit a bronze bust of his 95-year-old wife, Agnes, which he had started almost half-a-century earlier, but finished only two years ago.
Two of his paintings of dockyard scenes were purchased by the Duke of Edinburgh from a show at the RSA, while a carving of a stag was presented to the Queen in 1958, on behalf of Newport-on-Tay Town Council in Fife. He also designed the town's coat of arms.
Mr Halliday, also a member of the Italian Art Society who received numerous awards from many parts of the world over the years, is survived by his wife.
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