Obituary: Liz Wilson, lawyer who later studied reflexology and became a Buddhist

ELIZABETH May Wilson LLB, NP, MAR, who has died aged 73, was one of Scotland’s youngest-ever solicitors, a tribunal chair, and university tutor, before a remarkable career addition saw her become a professional reflexologist.

She was born in London in November, 1946 to Scottish parents, and raised and educated in Wishaw. An outstanding pupil at Wishaw High School, she gained her LLB degree at Glasgow University in 1966, aged just 19, too young to be a practising lawyer.

She then spent a year in America, studying sociology, psychology, politics and philosophy at Chicago’s DePaul University, a renowned research institution.

On her return to this country, she became a law apprentice with the old Glasgow Corporation and at long last was able to be formally enrolled as a solicitor in October, 1969.

She joined H. W. Nimmo & Co, a Wishaw law firm, before setting up her own business then amalgamating with another Wishaw practice in1973.

Further roles followed in the public sector as senior legal assistant and depute clerk of court for Perth Town Council and as Perth and Kinross District Council’s depute director of law and administration, with special responsibility for housing and public health.

Between 1983 and 1993, she and her great friend Fiona E. Raitt were founding partners of Dundee law firm, Wilson and Raitt, where they made their marks in Sheriff Court circles. Their caseload revolved around family breakdowns, children’s hearings, and domestic violence. From 1985 until 1990, Liz was appointed a safeguarder to represent children at panel hearings and at Dundee Sheriff Court.

When illness forced her to “retire” in 2016, David Cullen, Registrar of the Law Society of Scotland, wrote to thank her for her 46-year-long membership of the society, describing it as a “remarkable achievement”.

Liz was a part-time Appeal Tribunals chair for almost 10 years, covering child support, social security and medical law. On resigning, the government’s Department for Constitutional Affairs thanked her for “the benefit of your experience and work on the tribunal since 1993. Your dedication to duty and your courtesy will be missed.”

She was appointed a convener member of Mental Health Tribunals for Scotland in 2004, where her style was described as “quiet, effective and commanding.”

Her sense of fun proved calming during sensitive and fraught hearings. One appraisal found: “Liz attempts to make the tribunal process as positive an experience as possible for those involved. She made good use of humour at this hearing. The humour was appropriate and lightened the process …and [all parties] were so satisfied with the fairness of the hearing that they shook hands with the panel on leaving.”

She retired from the Scottish Mental Health Tribunals in 2016, aged 69, and was popular with her medical colleagues on panels. President Dr Joseph Morrow, QC, wrote: “You will be greatly missed and your contribution has been appreciated by many, including myself.”

Although working full-time, Liz continued her education throughout her life, including courses in business management at Strathclyde University and in taxation at Glasgow College of Technology.

She also gained awards in food hygiene and in anatomy, physiology and health at Perth College, and trained in drystone walling, which she loved and in which she achieved good proficiency as a member of a charitable trust doing projects in Fife, Perthshire and Angus.

Liz was also a fine tennis and golf player, and during many summers she sailed in 60ft traditional wooden boats as part of a voyage crew on the west coast to the Hebrides and St Kilda. Other passions of hers included the natural world and mountains in particular, photography, seabirds – and drumming.

She became a professional reflexologist in St Johnswood Terrace, Dundee, in 1992, continuing until 2016. At the same time, she was a legal panel member of the appeals service, and also a tutor at Dundee University for three years in solicitor/client relationships and on professional ethics.

She was a long-term Buddhist: she visited Nepal to look at projects to build schools, hospitals and temples in remote areas after making a millennium commitment to raise money for the Stupa Project for World Peace, which was inspired by Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, founder of Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre in the Borders. She furthered the peace project with a one-month pilgrimage to Tibet. Liz was also a celebrant at the monastery, officiating at weddings.

Her last days at Bridge View nursing home, Dundee, were striking, with staff describing Liz as “a calm, serene, inviting person, without doubt an inspiration to all. She was unique, her belief so strong.”

It was a Tibetan Buddhist practice to wrap Liz in a mandala – a prayer blanket – before cremation. In what became known as a “A Stitch for Liz,” manager nurse Heather Allison crocheted one, with more than 30 colleagues contributing a stitch to it. Some members, including Joe, the handyman, had to be taught to crochet.

She is survived by five brothers and one sister.

IAIN WILSON