IFTom Gourdie had a mission in life, it was to make the world write - to produce writing styles that possessed clarity and fluidity, that were legible and a delight to the eye.
In his 92nd year, he was Scotland's doyen of calligraphy and grand old man of handwriting, but his lifetime of trying to raise the standards of handwriting in his native land has not always been appreciated. He was nearly an octogenarian before the onetime art teacher received approaches from teacher training colleges to teach the teachers. Addressing a meeting of 60 heads, he pointed out that the training of teachers in the simple art of good writing had been completely neglected.
Over a 15-year period from 1975, he produced half-adozen books on handwriting and calligraphy. While his Simple Modern Hand is used in Scotland, the irony remains that the contents see greater exposure from New Zealand to Sweden, and Nigeria to Singapore.
Gourdie's gently evangelical approach to the calligraphy that became his life's passion had begun by the age of 10, when he realised that he and his fellows were being taught to copy rather than create. They were using their fingers to write rather than their hands.
Years later, he recalled: "It is extremely important for children to learn to write in a simple, practical, calligraphic style. It was only at Edinburgh College of Art that I discovered calligraphy."
Children would continue to feel failures, he averred, because of their handwriting.
"It's not the teacher's fault, " he would say "because they have not been taught to write properly, " adding that they had not even been taught how to hold a pen properly. He would highlight France, where letter-writing remains more established than in the UK, and where primary schools continue to put priority on teaching a single national style of handwriting.
The son of a miner, Gourdie was born and educated in Cowdenbeath, gaining a scholarship to Edinburgh College of Art. It was there that he broadened his interest in handwriting, being taught by Irene Wellington, herself one of the finest calligraphers of the early twentieth-century English revival movement. Through her, he was encouraged to study the history of writing, and the styles of varying alphabets and scripts.
He taught first at Banff Academy, then Kirkcaldy High School, remaining at the latter until he took early retirement to devote more time to promulgating calligraphy. Those who were taught by him caught something of his quiet enthusiasm - at Kirkcaldy High School, or overseas during his lecture tours of Sweden, South Africa and the United States.
Some measure of recognition was accorded to him a decade ago, when The Art of Calligraphy, a practical exhibition of his work, was mounted at the Scotland Street education museum in Glasgow.
Gourdie himself led from the front, holding weekend workshops. He also wrote a letter to the children of the future, sealing it in a time capsule not to be opened until 2078 - with the sentiment that he hoped to be invited to the opening of it. "Something to look forward to, " he said.
A painter of some note, he was a familiar sight around Kirkcaldy with his sketchbook, capturing his adopted town and the coalfields around it. An artist as prodigious in output with brush as with his pen, he had a flair for intricacy, mood and period detail.
He brought his expertise in two very different fields together in producing illuminated addresses, among his clients being Nelson Mandela and Prince Andrew.
Gourdie was made MBE for services to calligraphy at the unusually early age of 46. He was predeceased by his wife Lilias and daughter, also Lilias, and is survived by two remaining children.
Thomas Gourdie MBE;
born May 18, 1913, died January 6, 2005.
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