Champion weight-lifter who represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games
Born: January 27, 1936;
Died: December 17, 2017
DEREK Gillies, who has died aged 81, was the most successful competitive weight-lifter to emerge from Edinburgh’s Dunedin Weight-lifting Club in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1970 he was selected to represent Scotland in the British Commonwealth Games.
A native of Penicuik, he left school at the age of 15 and found employment with the Esk Mill paper-making company and trained to became a paper-making machinist. He worked with the company until it closed.
Whilst still a teenager, he joined a youth club in Penicuik where there were various items of fitness equipment including a barbell with a variety of weights. He was immediately attracted to the barbell and started regular training sessions. Very quickly his strength increased and he soon found he required heavier weights.
When he was called up for national service at the age of 18, he joined the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and signed up for an extra year. He promptly applied to become a physical training instructor and he was sent to Aldershot where he undertook training and soon passed the relevant exams.
While he was in Aldershot, he met Nik Stuart who, from 1956 was the British Gymnastics Champion for eight years. They soon became friends. This may account for Gillies's ability to perform single handstands plus many other moves and an on-going love of gymnastics.
Following his national service, Gillies returned to the paper-making mill in Penicuik and, keen to continue weight-training, joined the Dunedin Amateur Weight-lifting club in Edinburgh. At a time when sporting facilities in Scotland were far from ideal, the club occupied premises in East Meadows – rented from the council – which had been built as a decontamination centre during the Second World War Two. There was a training hall with small, high, glass windows (some of them broken), a dressing room and WC, and an adjoining room with a cooker, which provided heat during committee meetings. In winter the temperature inside was not much higher than the temperature outside. The first person to arrive lit the two paraffin heaters – one in the dressing room and one in the gym, which was only good for warming cold hands and barely raised the temperature of the training area. In spite of these spartan conditions, Derek Gillies soon proved himself by regularly winning the East of Scotland Championship in his weight category.
In 1970 he reached the peak of his career when he was selected to represent Scotland in the British Commonwealth Games, which were held in Edinburgh.
It should be noted that Gillies was an all-round strength athlete. The British Amateur Weight-Lifting Association recognized 42 different lifts at this time and Gillies held several Scottish and British records.
He was also a keen photographer and was often seen carrying his Roleicord camera and electronic flash gun. Thanks to him, there is a good photographic record of weight-lifting in Scotland during this period.
As his own competitive career ended, Gillies became manager of the weight-training hall at the newly built Meadowbank Sports Stadium where he coached everyone interested in the sport.
A few years ago he developed dementia and at the time of his death he was being cared for at Whim Hall Nursing Home near Penicuik.
He is survived by his wife Norma, son David and daughter Linda.
GORDON WRIGHT
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