BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES

Robert and Nancy (née Scrimgeour) Tomkins have announced the birth of Grace Isabella Suzanne Tomkins b. Oct. 3, 2003 in Ottawa, Ont. A sister for Jason and granddaughter for Jack and Pat Scrimgeour of Ottawa.

The Council are delighted to announce that a our Skirmisher editor, Catriona and her husband Graham, our Minutes Secretary, had a daughter Sarah Rose, on 14^th February 2003, which apart from being St. Valentines Day was the 3^rd Birthday of their son Benjamin. A third grand-child for our Treasurer (and now new Secretary).

JOHN ALEXANDER SCRYMGEOUR 82, died August 30, 2003 in New York. Born on August 12, 1921 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia he was the son of Alice Rebecca Newbury and Charles Edward Scrymgeour. He is survived by his wife, Dana H. Scrymgeour; son, Jack (Ann) and their children, Carly, Christy, Devon, Rosy and Luke; great grandsons, Nicholas and Isaac; son, Charles (Karen); son, Alexander (Julie) and their daughter, Joanna; daughter, Nancy (Leslie) and their children, Andrew and Faith; daughter, Tiffany Shewell (David) and their daughter, Chloe; and his sister, Shirley. A proud Nova Scotian, he received his early education in Dartmouth and attended Dalhousie University where he graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree. Following graduation, he was commissioned in the Royal Canadian Navy where he served during the Second World War. After the war, he departed for Western Canada and became a major figure in the Alberta Oil Patch - first as an executive with Home Oil and then with Commonwealth Petroleums Limited, which at the time was Canada's largest oil well drilling contractor. He expanded this enterprise into a global corporate entity and further diversified into the field of plumbing and electrical supply and distribution, forming Westburne International Industries Limited. As the founding Chairman and CEO of Westburne, he built one of the largest drilling, wholesale plumbing and electrical supply and distribution companies in North America with operations spanning the globe. One of John Scrymgeour's crowning business achievements was when, with Texan partners, he formed SEDCO Industries to build offshore drilling rigs and directed that the construction of several floating drill rigs take place in his native province of Nova Scotia. John Scrymgeour was the first Canadian to be named a Governor of the American Stock Exchange; he was granted honorary doctorates from the Technical University of Nova Scotia in 1984, Dalhousie University in 1993 and was elected to the Nova Scotia Business Hall of Fame in 2002. John Scrymgeour served on many corporate boards, including Brascan, Luscar, Encal Energy, and ATCO Industries, was a director, life member and strong supporter of the Fraser Institute, and an Honorary Member of the Canadian Association of Oil Well Drilling Contractors. A lifelong supporter of the arts, he made significant contributions to the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Dalhousie Art Gallery, where the main gallery is known as the Scrymgeour Gallery and to other galleries and museums across Canada. He will be truly missed by his family, many friends and business associates and by countless others for his quiet and discrete acts of kindness and generosity. Funeral services will be held in Bermuda at St. John's Anglican Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or Dalhousie Art Gallery. (From Toronto Globe and Mail, Friday, September 5, 2003)

Contributed by J. E. Benson, 1328 Leighton Rd., Peterborough, Ont.K9H 6W6, Canada. E-mail bensomtim@bigfoot.com

Ed Note: Readers may recall correspondence with him and his story (reprinted from a news magazine) in the Skirmisher year 2001 p. 57. This tells of his brave fight against cancer and his dramatic improvement with the herbal remedy Essiac, described there as taking him "From a wheel chair to the golf course".

On one occasion, as I was checking in to a Vancouver hotel, I was handed a large package of mail, apparently addressed to me. On checking the contents it quickly became obvious that they were holding it for him so it was returned to the front desk. We never did meet but I had the opportunity to mention this to him two years ago in the course of Skirmisher related correspondence.

Sadly we must advise members of the following death which was reported just too late to appear in the 2002 edition

Elizabeth (Betty) Scrimgeour of Glasgow on September 30 2002 at the age of 90, having been born in the Dennistoun district of that city. Betty regularly attended Clan gatherings lastly at Crieff in 2000. Her parents were both teachers and clearly she had education in her genes and after Hutcheson’s Girls School and a Classics degree from Glasgow University she taught through the late thirties and the second world war in Glasgow and Girvan, In 1946 she was one of the first missionaries to leave Scotland after the war and she was destined to be a missionary teacher in North India for the next 30 years based in the Girls High School in Kalimpong, located in the Himalayan foothills close to the borders of both Tibet and Nepal, becoming headmistress.

Her service in Kalimpong saw changing and exciting times for church and state in India. She was glad to participate in the formation of the united church of North India, and of course she worked throughout the major events of partition and the coming of Indian independence.

In her work at Kalimpong she combined her real commitment to education and the Christian faith with an openness and willingness to learn and change as the world changed around her. She was especially proud of the provision of a new science block and that, on her retiral, she was succeeded by an Indian, Leom Ronyong. On her retirement it was said of her; "She will be missed in school, church and community, by old, young, missionary and Indian colleagues as teacher, friend and counsellor."

A few years ago she managed one precious final trip to India which she knew would be her last and before travelling she said to her cousin; "If I don’t make it back from India, don’t bring me home, just bury me where I drop." - which vividly illustrates her commitment to the nation to which she devoted the lions share of her working life. In the end she was destined to die in her native Glasgow where she was extensively involved in the life of Wellington Church, where she served as an elder.

(The above has been edited from a longer obituary written by Rev Leith Fisher her parish minister which appeared in The Herald on November 7, 2002.)