Obituary - Harold Wilkinson, teacher and director of education

Died: February 27, 2017

HAROLD Wilkinson, who died of a rare type of leukaemia aged 85, was a popular teacher and director of education who established the first geography department in Wick High School in Caithness during the early 1960s and, as a director of leisure and recreation, went on to transform some of the most famous beauty spots in the Highlands.

A geography graduate of Edinburgh University in 1960, Mr Wilkinson had a full career mainly in senior education management. He also held director-level posts, firstly with Inverness-shire and then with the Highland Region, also based in Inverness, in wider fields, until his retirement in 1995.

Born in Dundee, he was a day-pupil at the city's Morgan Academy, which was temporarily evacuated to Banchory in Aberdeenshire during part of the Second World War.

He initially planned a career in engineering and spent two years at St Andrew's University, before being called up for national service in the British Army. He then entered Edinburgh University as a mature student.

His appointment as a geography teacher to Wick High in 1961 was his first post after completing teaching training at Moray House College in Edinburgh.

In Caithness, he made his home with his new wife Audrey in Auckengill, the crofting community between John O'Groats and Wick.

As the first honours geography graduate on Wick High's payroll, he set about establishing a new department and preparing senior pupils for the Highers in the subject for the first time. Previously it not been taught to that level at Wick, although senior pupils could sit the Higher exam after lightly supervised book-based self-study at school.

After a time in the education department of Perthshire County Council, Mr Wilkinson returned north again as assistant and then director of education with Inverness-shire in the late 1960s.

He was involved in his local church, Ness Bank in Inverness, and was appointed an elder in 1977. He also served as a long-term session clerk to Ness Bank where Rev Fiona Smith was the city's first woman Kirk minister.

He had a deep interest in the wild outdoors and took his young family of four on caravanning holidays, with the Lake District and Yorkshire being favourite destinations.

When the Highland Region was formed in 1974, he became its first director of leisure and recreation. He established an archaeology section and set up a countryside ranger service, improving the access to many beauty spots in the Highlands. The public car park at John O'Groats is one example of his legacy; he also oversaw an upgrading of facilities at Dunnet Bay caravan park.

Another of his innovations was the provision of a modern-standard all-weather footpath to the Stacks of Duncansby from an enhanced coach and car-park at Duncansby Head lighthouse.

He also showed his geography background by co-operating with local councillor Sandy Lindsay in having interpretation boards erected at the roadside at Dulnain Bridge, in Speyside. The boards mark and explain the fine examples of rounded rocks, known as roche moutonnees, that have resulted from erosion and abrasion by the massive ice-sheets that covered the Cairngorms over 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age.

He encouraged the charity Seagull Trust to establish free boat cruises for disabled people in Loch Ness and oversaw the registration of an official Highland tartan.

After his retirement in 1995, Mr Wilkinson was appointed chair of the 100-member Inverness Civic Trust, which seeks to preserve the best of the city's historic architecture and amenity, whilst opposing what it considers as unsuitable building developments at the planning application stage.

Mr Wilkinson is survived by his four children and five grand-children.

BILL MOWAT