AGNES Thomson, who has died aged 90, possessed an extraordinary range of talents that enabled her to combine a very successful professional career with a deep involvement in community affairs.
Born in the Kelvingrove area of Glasgow, she was educated at Glasgow High School for Girls and trained as a physiotherapist at the city's Western Infirmary, working initially at the then Miners' Rehabilitation Unit at Uddingston.
In 1955 she was appointed superintendent physiotherapist at Paisley's Royal Alexandra Infirmary and from then until her retirement in 1977, presided over a lively and dedicated staff. Her innovations included the establishment of a creche for the children of staff members, a combination of the practical and creative thinking which was to prove her trademark in all aspects of her life. A regular feature at Paisley was the Christmas pantomime, which the staff mounted for all the elderly long-term patients in the hospital's annexe at Craw Road. In time there was also an annual Christmas Day dinner in the local homeless persons' hostel. This always concluded with Thomson's home-made clootie dumpling.
For most of her working life, Thomson combined the demands of her career with those of caring for her increasingly frail elderly parents, Jean and Sam, to whom she displayed unswerving dedication. She also managed somehow to fit in long-term membership of the Soroptimists, serving as president of the Paisley Branch in 1968-69.
A strong religious conviction underpinned all of her activities. A lifelong member of the Church of Scotland, Thomson served as an elder, helping to initiate a visiting scheme for elderly people. Her driving force was always her desire to improve her immediate neighbourhood and the lives of its residents.
Appalled by homelessness and poor housing, and angry about neglected buildings nearby, she consulted with Shelter, who suggested setting up a housing association. Thomson then assembled a talented team of volunteers who held their inaugural meeting in her flat in December 1969. This group became the Philemon Housing Association, one of the earliest such groups in Glasgow.
Without any official funding, they struggled for many years to get established, but Thomson was indefatigable. Unafraid to approach influential people, she lobbied councillors, local community activists and her local MP for their active participation in the venture. An initial success, largely driven by her, was the innovative open-plan Craigmaddie back-court improvement scheme.
The association's programme was kick-started after 1974 through support and funding from the housing corporation. The scale of local housing need was demonstrated when Philemon's first project of 15 refurbished flats in the Woodlands area attracted over 100 applicants.
For 18 more years, with Thomson as chairman, the association tackled complex ground-breaking projects: an abandoned hotel in Derby Street was acquired under threat of compulsory purchase and converted into 27 small flats; a B-listed building over a railway tunnel in St Vincent Crescent was rescued for housing. Recognition of Thomson's efforts with Philemon Housing Association came with appointment as an MBE in 1991. With typical self-deprecation, she always stated she was unaware why she had been honoured.
Ever the human dynamo, Thomson's other interests included golf, bridge and swimming. She enjoyed entertaining and was famous for her treacle scones, dumplings and generous measures of gin and tonic.
Apart from her last few weeks in hospital, Thomson continued to live at her family home in Sauchiehall Street, embedded in the community to which she had given so much of her time, energy and love. She leaves behind abiding affection among those with whom she came into contact, not least her family and her physiotherapists.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article