Derick Thomson

Derick Smith Thomson (Scottish Gaelic: Ruaraidh MacThòmais; 5 August 1921, Stornoway – 21 March 2012, Glasgow) was a Scottish poet, publisher, lexicographer, academic and writer.

He worked to promote Scottish Gaelic literature, to take one example, as founder, editor and publisher of the quarterly "Gairm" since 1953.

He was originally from Lewis, but spent much of his life in Glasgow, where he was Professor of Celtic at the University of Glasgow from 1963 to 1991.

He is best known for setting up the publishing house Gairm, along with its magazine, which was the longest-running periodical ever to be written entirely in Gaelic, running for over fifty years under his editorship.

Gairm has since ceased, and was replaced by Gath and then STEALL.

He was an Honorary President of the Scottish Poetry Library, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Academy.

He became Professor of Celtic at Glasgow in 1963, and retired in 1991.

He was Chairman of the Gaelic Books Council 1968–91; President Scottish Gaelic Texts Society; former member of Scottish Arts Council and was the first recipient of the Ossian Prize in 1974.

Professor Thomson was Chairman of the Scottish National Party's Gaelic Committee in the Seventies.

His English-Gaelic dictionary came out in 1981, and was for many years the most practical reference of its kind.

He is the author of numerous books including An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry, The Companion to Gaelic Poetry, European Poetry in Gaelic, and collections of Gaelic poetry, including his collected poems Creachadh na Clàrsaich (Plundering of the Harp/clarsach) which shared the Scottish Book of the Year Award in 1983.

He also edited The Companion to Gaelic Scotland.

He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1992 and gave the 1999 Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture on "Scottish Gaelic Traditional Songs from the 16th to the 18th Century".

Thomson was also tireless in his support of other writers in Gaelic and helped bring to publications works such as 'Gaelic Verbs' by Colin B.D. Mark.

He published seven collections of Gaelic poetry, with many English translations, including Meall Garbh/The Rugged Mountain (1995), Smeur an Dochais, etc.

His publications included such seminal works as the Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's Ossian, An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry, The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (edited by him) and Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century; his contributions to Welsh studies are also noteworthy.

In June 2007, he received an honorary degree from Glasgow University.

Thomson was originally from Upper Bayble (Pabail Uarach) on Lewis, the same village that produced two other Gaelic writers of note, Iain Crichton Smith and Anne Frater.

His parents, James Thomson and Christina Smith, were both primary school teachers.

Educated at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, he went on to the Universities of Aberdeen; Cambridge and Bangor University.

He would later teach at University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen.

Derick Thomson died in 2012, at the age of 90.

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