Century celebrations for Hilda amid lockdown
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THE coronavirus may have brought much of normal life grinding to a halt, but it most certainly was not going to stop one grand old lady celebrating her centenary.
Netherha Nursing Home in Buckie may, like others across the country, may be on lockdown but her 100th birthday was still a very special day for former home economics teacher Hilda Thomson.
Her son, John, who lives in Banff, was able to to wave through the window and wish his mum well, while over 100 relatives, friends and former students took to Facebook to wish her well. Hilda also received a congratulatory message from Her Majesty The Queen.
Throughout a long career she touched many students not just at Buckie High School, as it was then, but far and wide across the north-east, setting them up with vital skills that would last them a lifetime.
John said: "Mum was an outgoing person and quite independent in her younger day.
"She was popular during her teaching days, she always thought that as domestic science, as the subject was called then, was one the pupils chose to do rather than were forced to do meant they took more of an interest in her classes.
"In her early career, which would have been late war years into just afterwards, she travelled around lots of schools in the north-east. She always said she was delighted with that job as she was entitled to a car and access to petrol, which was rationed.
"Mum didn't have a lot of hobbies, she was always busy, but she enjoyed motoring holidays with dad and they both enjoyed their retirement together.
"In her younger day, mum was quite at athletic; when she was at school she used to run a lot and was a great hockey player. She's still in good health and quite strong, which is wonderful."
Mr Thomson also had warm words of praise for the staff at Netherha.
"The staff at Netherha are excellent, I can't thank them enough for the care they give and the way they look after mum.
"I'm very happy with how she's looked after, it's a huge weight off my mind and a great relief to know she's in such good hands and I'm very grateful indeed for it."
Ruth Smith, manager at Netherha Care Home, added: “Hilda is a ray of sunshine in these difficult times and she is very much loved by the residents and staff.
"Although she wasn’t able to gather with family and friends, she was overjoyed to see her son. It was a very happy occasion and she was really touched by the outpouring of love and support from her friends in the community.”
Born in Drybridge, near Buckie, to the local blacksmith George Duncan, Hilda was the oldest of three, her brother and now sister now sadly passed away.
Schooled in Buckie, Hilda then made the trip to Edinburgh in what was to be the first step in a long and fulfilling professional career when she gained a place in the School of Domestic Science – colloquially known as the Do School – situated in Atholl Crescent in the nation's capital.
Reurning to Drybridge she embarked on a career as a peripatetic teacher, a patch which took in the likes of Banff and Turriff. During this time she met and, in 1950, married Clochan farmer Meldrum Thomson, moving to Newbigging farm. Hilda stopped teaching and concentrated her energies on the many roles expected of a farmer's wife, with 1953 heralding the birth of their only child, John.
However, the draw of teaching was to prove a strong one and by the late 1960s Hilda was edging her way back into the profession on a part-time, peripatetic basis, taking classes at, along others, Portgordon and Keith Grammar School.
By 1970 she was working full-time at Buckie High, where she was to remain until her retirement in 1980, leaving with the position of principal teacher of home economics.
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