MyGlasgow News

Hundreds of mourners attended a special memorial service for Sam Galbraith, the former Labour politician, neurosurgeon and Glasgow alumnus who died at the age of 68. 

Sam was one of the world's longest surviving lung transplant patients, undergoing the procedure in 1990. He served as both an MP and an MSP, holding the post of education minister in Scotland’s first devolved government.

The service, which was held in the Bute Hall on Tuesday 26 August, was led by Rev Stuart Macquarrie. There were warm tributes and contributions from speakers including Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, Professor Sir Graham Teasdale, Professor Sir Harry Burns and two of Sam's political colleagues – Brian Wilson and Alistair Darling.

A tribute

The memorial service in the Bute Hall heard a tribute to Sam Galbraith from his wife, Nicola.  We reproduce it here in edited form.

Sam climbed initially with the GUM (university mountaineering club) Club. When its members left the university they formed ‘The Desperados’. He and friend Sandy - and later me - spent many great days, evenings and Hogmanays up North walking, climbing and ‘stripping the Willows' in the snow! As a junior Doctor he and friends used to rent a cottage each winter in Speyside to participate in ‘winter sports! As well as having fun in the mountains he was also serious about his climbing, having tackled the hardest climb in Scotland at that time - Point Five Gully. He would head to the Alps each summer with Sandy and do some ‘serious routes’ He was also part of an expedition to the Himalayas 1986 and a member of the Scottish Mountaineering club.

Skiing

We met in 1979 when I started working at the Southern General and I joined the hospital hill walking club. Sam introduced me to the outdoor life of hill walking, camping and climbing. Eventually he came over to 'the dark side' when he learned to ski and became a ‘planker’. We then combined the two and spent some time ski mountaineering in Scotland. When I first met Sam he lived a Spartan life, often sleeping on his hard floor in preference to his soft warm bed to toughen himself up for the mountains! He had little regard for material goods and paid little attention to the mundane activities of normal daily life, like washing dishes. His sister Ailsa one day found a mouldy cup and assumed he must be carrying out an experiment. IN fact it had been left for days unwashed! Apart from a few mugs his flat was furnished with paper plates, plastic knives and forks, one sofa and an empty fridge apart from the Baluga caviar donated by a visiting registrar.

Transplant

His pride and joy, apart from his climbing and camping equipment was his vast collection of books: political, philosophical and medical. Novels and fiction were frivolous and a luxury that he didn’t have time to indulge in. It was only later that he read crime novels prodigiously: Ian Rankin’s latest books always eagerly anticipated.

Despite me leaving to work abroad in Switzerland, Canada, Australia and travelling in Asia, we kept liaising in different countries and I came back to Glasgow in 1985 and we married in Kingussie in 1987, the same year he was elected to parliament as the MP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden and the first time there was any inkling that he had a lung condition which was subsequently diagnosed as Fibrosing Alveolitis. Sam was instrumental in diagnosing his sister’s condition for which she had a heart and lung transplant at Papworth hospital in 1989. At this time I was pregnant with Mhairi and it became apparent that his condition was going to follow the same course as his sister’s.

When Mhairi was 3 weeks old we had our first visit to the Freeman hospital in Newcastle for assessment for a single lung transplant. Mhairi was born on the 23rd August and Sam continued to deteriorate and was admitted to the Western Infirmary in December 1989, transferred to the Freeman, Newcastle and was fortunate to receive his transplant on January 5th 1990. After the initial operation, and concerns about rejection and infection, we came back to Glasgow almost 6 months later and Sam’s health improved. Although not able to climb as he had before, he could at that time still walk up small hills.

Get intae them!

We moved to Jordanhill in 1991. Heather was born in January 1992 - two years post transplant, and Fiona in August 1993. Sam - then at Westminster - had a punishing schedule, travelling between parliament in London and his home in Glasgow and constituency in Strathkelvin and Bearsden. We were in opposition till 1997 when he became Health Minister.

The girls attended Jordanhill School and he was very proud of their achievements. We attended Prize giving every year until Fiona left in in 6th Year. Mhairi was School Captain, Heather Vice Captain, Fiona Dux in her final year. He particularly enjoyed the many school music concerts with Mhairi and Heather both playing the violin and the flute and Fiona the clarinet. Mhairi was leader of the band and she and Fiona studied music as a certificate subject. All three girls played in WOSIS (West of Scotland Schools Orchestra. The girls all played hockey for Hillhead hockey club and the school first XI. Heather was captain of the first XI in her final year at school and banned Sam from watching after he was regularly heard shouting ‘Get intae them!’ from the side line! Despite his punishing parliamentary workload he always made it his priority to attend their ballet displays at Mrs Christies Ballet School and at Scottish Ballet over a period of 14 years! He regularly did the gymnastic run and always supported them at the many gymnastic competitions they took part in for the Allander club and the School. Sam watched Cross country competitions, and whenever he could, he would take Heather to Tollcross swimming pool for 5.30 am training sessions. Even in his final weeks in June he struggled to get the train and walk to the new Commonwealth pitch at Glasgow Green to watch Fiona play and win the plate for Edinburgh University on hockey cup final day.

"Wifies"

He has instilled his socialist values in all the girls, taking them on the campaign trail through the leafy suburbs of Bearsden where in their enthusiasm they even leafleted the exclusive all male Glasgow Golf club at Killermont! They are proud to be card carrying members of the Labour Party and to stand up for their political beliefs.  I heard recently - in a lovely email from one of Sams friends from his Scottish Office days - that he had been very proud of their feminism which will come as a pleasant surprise to all the ‘wifies’ (as he called us) in the Labour party. It certainly did to me! He constantly teased and goaded us into lengthy discussions/debates/arguments about our ‘Loony Feminist’ stuff! He was often heard to say that God was getting back at him by surrounding him with four women! A good friend of mine, who worked for the Womens Support Network, thought that that 4:1 ratio was just about right for Sam! Although he did have some credentials: he and Sandy, his good friend and climbing partner, were instrumental in the decision of the Scottish Mountaineering club to admit women.

To young people and children he was not just 'this old guy': they thought he was great fun. At our annual panto outing to the Kings Theatre at Hogmanay with our friends and their families, he became a star turn with his great heckling (in true panto style) of Elaine C Smith and the late Gerard Kelly. His teasing knew no bounds and he constantly teased ‘Granny’ (my mother) telling her after her coronary artery bypass surgery and numerous joint replacements that she was indestructible! Fortunately she didn’t take any of his comments personally and ‘Granny and Papa’ have been a great support to me and the girls. He constantly told the girls that it is the person you are that is important and not how you look. But they quickly cottoned onto this as an excuse for him to wear the same clothes, often ridiculously shabby, until they fell apart; although they did finally realise that he genuinely didn’t care what he wore or looked like. He has been spotted walking round the corner to Kate and Harpreet’s in his pyjamas and dressing gown.

Western Isles

We did have good philosophical debates particularly as the girls got older. Sam was a member of the Glasgow Philosophical Society (my degree was in philosophy) so many a lively evening was had debating at home and at friends. The girls initially were in amazed that we could have such animated debates and all still speak to one another afterwards. But latterly they were joining in too - Nisha’s 21st being the equivalent of ‘Darling versus Salmond’ in Jordanhill.

Although he has been unable to climb in the mountains he loved, he was always keen to get out of the city and up North. He loved his days as the locum surgeon at the Broadford hospital in Skye and we spent many great weekends there. He loved few places more than the Western Isles and we have been lucky enough to be able to visit Brian and Joni (Wilson) in Lewis and Nairn in Benbecula and spent memorable times there: some of the most precious memories being from our visit immediately after his transplant with Brian and Joni in Uig.

When Fiona was a few weeks old we swam in the freezing Atlantic. What we didn’t realise until later was that Sam had a raging pneumonia, from which he clearly recovered. We have been fortunate to spend a lot of time at Strachur on Loch Fyne where the girls learned to look for crabs on the beach, collect salt water for the potatoes, an adjunct to the obligatory midge infested BBQ which Sam slaved over each time. The girls spent so much time in the loch with cousins and friends that they were often literally blue with the cold.

Mushroom Man 

When Sam retired from politics took up golf, playing with his brother Roderick at the course known locally as 'Royal Knightswood' and latterly with his good friends Harpreet and Ray at Ross Priory. This allowed him to be in the outdoors and there were always bacon rolls afterwards. In the last 2 years we moved house and now have chalet at Newtonmore, which we all have loved. We have spent much time there with Ailsa, the girls’ cousins and friends. It has allowed Sam some access to the mountains via the funicular at Cairngorm. He would meet us at the Ptarmigan restaurant when we have either been skiing or walking and it has allowed him to keep up his interest in flora and fauna. The girls have endured many tutorials on spagnum moss and the difference between bracken and fern, not to mention the picking and dissecting of the many types of mushrooms which he enthusiastically described in Latin to us all.

We had many an evening playing board games in particular ‘Articulate’  which was a source of great hilarity as Sam could never answer quickly enough for the sharp young minds of his girls. As a member of the Glasgow Natural History Society he became an avid mycologist or ‘mushroom man’ as the girls called him! We as a family spent as much time camping as Sam’s work and health would allow. The girls have learned from him all their camping skills and like him can erect a tent in minutes, build a fire and can cook a three course meal on a stove. Fiona had a camping trip to the Western Isles in June and proudly sent her Dad pictures of the fire she built on the beach.

Last Summer was a wonderful summer for Sam: he, Ailsa and I swam in the river Truim. The weather was uncharacteristically hot. This was the first time Sam had been swimming in the open for years and we also walked to the river Calder in the Monaliaths where, half an hour off the beaten track and not another soul in sight and just as we were getting into the river to swim, another couple appeared from nowhere only to say: ‘Aren’t you Sam Galbraith?’ He continued to be recognised wherever he went.

Pride and Joy 

The girls have been his greatest pride and joy. He once thought he would never get to see Mhairi growing up, but not only has seen one daughter into her adult life - he has seen three. He was incredibly proud of Mhairi going to Cambridge and becoming a Doctor but he was also delighted that she graduated with a degree in history and philosophy of medicine and science. He was also pleased to meet the new young man in Mhairi’s life who he affectionately referred to as ‘Posh Boy’, welcoming him into our family home and thoroughly enjoying his company and intellectual discussions.

He also saw Heather graduate with her law degree from Edinburgh University in July and, although apprehensive about her proposed year of travelling around the world, was thrilled that she was venturing forth. He has seen Fiona complete 3 of her 5 years in chemical engineering at Edinburgh University and has been delighted at her also venturing out into the wider world - completing two summers coaching tennis and field hockey in the United States.

The girls adored him as he adored them. The girls and I would like to thank our family, our GPs at the Jackson practice, the transplant team at the Freeman hospital in Newcastle and the staff at Gartnavel hospital and the Western Infirmary Glasgow for their amazing support over the last 26 years before and after Sam’s transplant in 1990.

 

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First published: 27 August 2014