Michael Peter Gill

Born 12th November 1934

Died 26th March 2015

Mike Gill, who has died aged 80, was the head of art at George Watson's College who took charge of not only the art curriculum but also all things of artistic merit and value in and around the school.

On his arrival at the college in 1971, he gladly accepted this duty. After all he was a gifted artist himself and a connoisseur of all things fine in the arts including music and architecture.

He would eventually catalogue more than 200 paintings which were hung on the walls of the college or stored in cupboards. One room held a further collection of the papers and art works gathered together by former Watson's pupil James Stewart-Lockhart at the turn of the 20th century whilst a colonial administrator, latterly as the first British Civil Commissioner of Wei-hai-wei (now Weihai) in the Shandong Province.

Mike, with his wife Shiona the distinquished art historian and museum curator, ensured that the collection was in 1982 publicly exhibited in Edinburgh's City Art Centre.

The couple had forged strong links with the Chinese in Weihai who visited Scotland to take copies of Stewart- Lockhart's papers and photographs to build up their collections destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. And in 2006 Mike at the age of 72 visited Shandong and Weihai with Shiona and is seen in the photograph lighting incense outside a temple on Liugong Island.

Cool headed Mike was never overwhelmed by the grandeur of Watson's setting. He was fond of stating that its Colinton Road frontage - a two storey high stretch with its monolithic rows of windows and the tall chimney of the central heating system loaming up behind - looked like a biscuit factory. However there was no doubting the respect with which he undertook the care of the school's array of sculptures, monuments and emblems.

And he put to good use one work in bronze by the Edinburgh born sculptor George Anderson Lawson, of a reclining naked youth previously incongruously deposited in front of the War Memorial, moving it to the Design Centre's garden where it aided the development of anatomical understanding in young artists.

Mike's own artistic talent was recognised early on. A pupil of Aberdeen Grammar he was awarded the school's Samuel Pope Medal for Art. On gaining a post graduate diploma from Gray's School of Art in 1956 when he was just 23 years old he was selected along with the brightest and best of graduates from Scotland's four art colleges to complete a summer residency at Hospitalfield House outside Arbroath.

After two years of National Service, served with the Royal Air Force in Aden Mike went on to gain a teaching qualification at Moray House School of Education. In 1962 he took up a post as art teacher at Madras College in St Andrews, a few years later being promoted to Special Assistant.

In 1968 he was appointed Head of Art at Fettes College in Edinburgh. After a few years however the post as Head of Art at George Watson's College attracted him at a time when the school was set for expansion as it amalgamated with George Watson's Ladies College becoming in 1974 a large co-educational school.

At the same time the Design Centre was being developed. Under its roof the hitherto separate departments of art, home economics and technical education were housed. As the head of the Centre Mike managed three principal teachers and together they ensured that the arts and crafts achieved an equal footing with the academic subjects and sports that the school was renowned for.

One of the visions of the Design Centre was, through a multi-talented team of teachers, to develop the art curriculum beyond drawing and painting to include the crafts of print making and sculpting which were Mike's teaching specialities, as well as photography, pottery, ceramics and jewellery.

Another stream of energy which came from Mike - all the more commendable given he was a diabetic - was his lead role in musical productions. He staged these on an annual basis at Watson's for a number of years and in his spare time he was impresario of productions at the Assembly Rooms during the Fringe Festival.

Mike was a connoisseur of all things fine not only in the visual arts and music but also ins food and drink and architecture. He bought and restored a three storey high terraced townhouse in Gayfield Square in the New Town.

Later in the early nineties he and his family moved to a farmhouse near Harthill in North Lanarkshire in order to be half way between Edinburgh and Glasgow where Shiona held a post as a museum curator. The house and its 12.5 acre estate also became a labour of love as Mike ensured the planting of over ten acres of mixed woodland thus making a major positive contribution to the biodiversity of the area.

Mike Gill is survived by his wife Shiona and his son Ben.