We pay tribute to some of the people we have lost this year, including luminaries from the world of sport, science and the arts.
Michael Marra
Michael Marra, 60, nick-named the Bard of Dundee, was a singer, songwriter, musician, actor and artist with a talent for capturing incidents and characters particular to his hometown. One of his best loved songs was Hamish the Goalie, while Hermless was considered as a potential Scottish anthem. He also wrote an operetta, If The Moon Can Be Believed, and devised a show, In Flagrant Delicht, with the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead.
Terry Nutkins
Much loved wildlife presenter and naturalist Terry Nutkins, 66, inspired generations of children with his TV programmes the Really Wild Show and Animal Magic. As a teenager he moved to Glenelg in the West of Highlands, where Gavin Maxwell, author of the bestselling book Ring of Bright Water, became his legal guardian. The tips of two fingers were bitten off by one of Maxwell’s pet otters.
Janey Buchan
Janey Buchan, 85, was a Glasgow-born politician, civil rights campaigner and patron of the arts who was a Labour MEP for 15 years. Growing up in a cramped tenement in Glasgow, she became a member of the young communist league, joined the Labour party in 1956 and was vice chairman of the party in Scotland in the 80s. Buchan was also a keen supporter of folk music and helped found The People's Festival.
Jocky Wilson
Jocky Wilson, 62, was a former world champion darts player whose success peaked at a time when the sport was at its most popular on television. He honed his talent for darts at Kirkcaldy’s Lister's Bar and turned professional in 1979. Between then and his retirement in 1996, he enjoyed a remarkable career, reaching at least the quarter-finals of every World Championship between 1979 and 1991.
Joe McBride
Joe McBride, 74, was a Celtic legend and top striker who also played for teams including Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Hibernian and Dunfermline Athletic. He scored more than 250 goals during his fifteen years between his debut for Kilmarnock in 1957 and his farewell for Clyde in 1972. He was part of the Celtic squad that one the European Cup in 1967, but a knee injury kept him out of action while his club-mates earned immortality as the Lisbon Lions.
Sir Alastair Burnet
Alastair Burnet, 84, was one of the original presenters of ITV’s News at Ten. He began his career as sub-editor at the Herald, later becoming editor of the Economist and Daily Express, and a BBC presenter for Panorama, before returning to ITN and becoming director of the channel in 1982. He was an ITN commentator for elections, budgets and royal and state occasions, including Prince Charles's marriage to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
George Wyllie
Glasgow artist and sculptor George Wyllie’s,90, most famed works include The Straw Locomotive (1987) which hung from the Finnieston crane in Glasgow before being burned in Springburn, and The Paper Boat (1989-90) which was seen by millions as it sailed around the world. It was only when he was in his forties that he concentrated on art. His clock on running legs, outside Buchanan Street Bus Station might be his most familiar work.
Ian Campbell
Aberdeenshire-born folk singer Ian Campbell, 79, had a lasting influence on generations of folk singers. Campbell's records sold widely and his 1965 version of Bob Dylan's classic The Times They Are a-Changin' brought him chart success. Campbell appeared in the 1960s with the left-wing Ewan MacColl in a popular series of documentaries on television called Radio Ballads. His sons were involved in the band UB40.
William Turnbull
William Turnbull, 90, son of a Dundee shipbuilder, was one of Britain’s most regarded sculptors. He began his career in 1939 when he got work in the illustration department at publishers DC Thomson, and after serving in the RAF during the Second World War he studied art in London and Paris. His travels to the Far East inspired his totemic sculptures, and stainless steel was a medium he championed.
Patrick Timoney
Patrick Timoney, 42, was a Scottish champion and black belt in the martial art of taekwondo who graced the sport for more than 20 years. He fought in the 1998 World Championship, and was the current Scottish and British champion in his specialist discipline. When not actively participating, he coached the Scottish team and travelled with them to the European Championships in Slovenia in 2010, in addition to nurturing a rich seam of Glasgow-based talent.
Jaymie Mart
Jaymie Mart, 31, was a champion mountain bike racer and sports nutritionist based in Peebles. Described as a pioneer in women's mountain bike racing, she was a seven-times Elite Female Scottish Downhill Mountain Bike Champion and the silver medallist in the 2010 World Mountain Bike Masters Championships. She also earned the nickname The Barbadian Bullet, after successful racing for the Barbados mountain bike team.
George Gallacher
George Gallacher, 68, was the vocalist of sixties band The Poets, the first Scottish group to make it into the top 20. They shared management with The Rolling Stones, dressed as Edwardian dandies and their first single, Now We’re Thru, in 1964, encapsulated the psychedelic sound. When the band lost favour, Gallacher turned back to his love of football and socialism, and formed the dead Loss Band with its heavier rock sound.
Sheila Murray
Glasgow-born Sheila Murray, 93, was a former Wren and an eyewitness to the parachute landing of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess at Eaglesham during the Second World War. She was also private secretary to the Marchioness of Graham, Duchess of Montrose, and during the war was one of the first group of Wrens to pass safely through the Suez Canal, which had just been re-opened, and reach South Africa.
Professor Keith Campbell
Professor Keith Campbell, 58, played a critical role in the creation of the world's first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute in 1996. Born in Nottingham and raised in Perth, he graduated from University of London with a degree in microbiology. It was Prof Campbell's research into cell cycles that opened the door to the cloning of mammals from differentiated cells.
Eric Lomax
Eric Lomax, 93, was a former army officer whose harrowing experiences as a prisoner of war with the Japanese inspired him to write an award-winning book, The Railway Man, now a film with Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. A former Edinburgh Royal High School pupil, Lomax was captured in Singapore during the war and was set to work on the infamous Death Railway, also recounted in The Bridge over the River Kwai. Haunted by his experiences, his later reconciliation with his Japanese torturers was recorded in a 1995 documentary.
Gordon Waddell
Gordon Waddell, 75, was one of Scotland's most distinguished rugby captains, a highly successful businessman a politician in South Africa, and husband to Mary Oppenheimer, one of the world's richest heiresses. Born in Glasgow but schooled at Fettes in Edinburgh, he then attended Cambridge University. Between 1957 and 1962 he played 18 times for Scotland, toured twice with the British Lions and played for the Barbarians a dozen times.
Ken Cargill
Ken Cargill, 65, was the former head of BBC Scotland who worked hard to bring television and radio news together in a unified service. He joined BBC Scotland in 1972 as a researcher and moved steadily through the ranks to become a pioneering head of news and current affairs. He won acclaim as producer for Agenda, a weekly political series. He was also project director for the design and construction of the BBC's new headquarters on Pacific Quay.
Teddy Scott
Teddy Scott was a player and coach who served Aberdeen Football Club for almost 50 years. He was born and lived his entire life in Ellon, apart from his period of National Service. He played for Caley Thistle Under-18s and as centre half for Aberdeen Sunnybank in the juniors, before being signed by Aberdeen. He was one of the first inductees into the Aberdeen club's Hall of Fame.
Jim O’Brien
Born into poverty in Dundee, Jim O’Brien, 64, became an acclaimed director of two drama series in the 1980s; The Jewel in the Crown (1985) and The Monocled Mutineer (1986). He moved onto film, directing The Dressmaker in 1988, written and produced by John McGrath. O'Brien's later credits include The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) and a TV movie version of Rebecca (1997).
Larry Canning
Larry Canning, 86, known as Mr Football of the Midlands, had a successful career playing for Aston Villa before becoming a leading BBC sports broadcaster and familiar voice on the radio. He was born a miner’s son in Cowdenbeath, and after playing for Broughty Amateurs and Scotland Schoolboys, at the age of 16 he began his professional career with Paget Rangers in Birmingham, before being signed by Aston Villa.
David Peat
David Peat, 65, was one of Scotland's most respected documentary film-makers with credits including Gutted, about the plight of the fishing industry, This Mine Is Ours, about Monktonhall Colliery, and series such as Clydebuilt and Scotland On Film. He was also a gifted photographer who charted Glasgow street life in the 1960s in a series of black and white pictures, taken with a Pentax camera he received for his 21st birthday.
Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson, 75, was considered one of the greatest actors Scotland ever produced, with comparisons to Brando, Gielgud and Olivier for his roles on stage and screen. His Hamlet on Broadway and London’s West End in the 1960s brought him huge critical acclaim, and he had a starring role in the military drama The Bofors Gun (1968). The Hamilton born actor also starred opposite Sean Connery in Robin and Marion (1978).
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