This page offers a small selection of staff obituaries that we know about. If you know of others we would be very pleased to include them here. Thank you.
Dr Patricia Thomas
If you attended JGHS between the years of 1975 and 1991, you will remember Dr Patricia Thomas, who was headteacher of James Gillespie’s High School at that time. Dr Thomas passed away in March 2023. Her obituary, written by John MacLeod, a former pupil at JGHS, was published in The Scotsman.
Miss Iona Cameron
In April 2017 James Gillespie’s Trust recorded the death of Iona Cameron, former Head of English and Assistant Head Teacher at James Gillespie’s High School. John MacLeod’s obituary was printed in the Scotsman on 17 April 2017.
Miss Alison Laidlaw
Miss Alison Laidlaw had an association with James Gillespies from 1913, as a pupil, a teacher and friend of the school until her death in 2007. A small garden was laid in her memory in the grounds of the new school in 2016. Before she died in 2007, she was keen to be included in the JG Trust Oral History project, so out of our love and respect for her, we will still feature her story as central to ‘Living Stories.’
Miss Ellen King
Miss Ellen Elizabeth King, 1909-1994, Scottish swimmer, teacher and coach featured in the James Gillespie’s School magazine in 1924 where she was identified as having been selected for the Great Britain swimming team at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. At the age of 15 she was the youngest member of the British team. When Miss King retired from competitive swimming she passed on her skills by teaching in a number of Edinburgh schools, including Bruntsfield Primary School. Her obituary was published in The Scotsman in Feburary 1994
Miss Mary McIver
Miss Mary G. McIver, Headmistress 1967-1975, died May 1994. Iona Cameron’s obituary of her friend was printed in the Scotsman on 19 May 1994.
Dame Muriel Spark (nee Camberg)
Edinburgh-born author Muriel Spark (nee Camberg) attended James Gillespie’s School from 1923 to 1935. She was born on 1 February 1918 and brought up in Bruntsfield. Muriel regularly visited Morningside Library and from a young age her particular interest was in poetry. At Gillespie’s she was known as ‘the school poet’. Some of her poems can be found in the school magazines. She left Edinburgh in 1937 and moved to live with her husband Sydney Oswald Spark in Southern Rhodesia. The marriage was not a success and Muriel returned to the UK in 1944 where she took a job with the war department in London. She occasionally returned to Edinburgh to visit her family, to visit the Edinburgh Festival and to accept an Honorary Degree. Muriel Spark died in Italy in April 2006. Obituaries were published in several newspapers and we have put a link to one of them above.
Fiona Donaldson from the James Gillespie’s Trust Alumni team has been researching Muriel Camberg and has put together a ‘Muriel Spark Walking Tour’ which is open to JGHS friends and family and anyone interested in Muriel Spark. The route takes in some of the Edinburgh locations that were important to Muriel Camberg when she was growing up in the Bruntsfield area of the city. It includes a few of the key locations used in the film adaptation of ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’, one of Muriel Spark’s most famous books. The next ‘Muriel Spark Walking Tour’ is on Saturday 6 September 2025. See the Alumni News page for details.
Other items on this website related to Muriel Spark: Muriel Spark Book Event, 2018; Opening of the Muriel Spark Walk, 2018; Muriel Spark Expressive Arts Building at JGHS.
Lady Dorothy Dunnett
Novelist and portrait painter Dorothy Dunnett (1923-2001) attended James Gillespie’s School five years after Muriel Spark. Dorothy Halliday was born in Dunfermline and lived in Corstophine. She won a scholarship to attend Gillespie’s. Her obituary was published in the Scotsman on 12 November 2001.
