Avril Macdonald, who tended to the skinned knees and bleeding noses of generations of Morgan Academy pupils, has died aged 75.
She was an auxiliary nurse at the school for many years and was the go-to person when pupils had a playground or classroom mishap.
It was a job she loved, said her husband, Doug. “She really enjoyed her time at Morgan, loved the kids and came home with many heart-warming stories. The kids seemed to like her too.”
Avril was born in Dundee in February 1948 to bus driver Peter Stewart and his wife, Edna. She was the first of eight children; seven girls and one boy.
School years
She was among the first of the intakes at the new Kirkton High School, where she enjoyed playing hockey, and when she left school, she started work in the pay office of NCR.
Avril enjoyed hillwalking, skiing and pony trekking and it was through her love of outdoor pursuits she met her future husband, Doug Macdonald.
The couple married at Dundee registrar’s office in 1970 and set up home in Kinnaird Street.
However, by the time they had modernised the flat to their own taste, Doug, an RAF serviceman, was posted to Bruggen in Germany.
There, Avril worked in the station library and then at the NAAFI headquarters.
The couple returned to Dundee at the end of 1973 and their first child, Richard, was born in 1974, followed by Judy in 1976 and Kate in 1984. Sadly, Richard died in 1985, a loss Avril never got over.
After nine years in the RAF, Doug became a maintenance supervisor on the railways before being appointed maintenance manager at Stoneridge Electronics in Dundee.
As the children grew up, Avril looked after the home and worked part-time at the Tayview Hotel near the family home, before she joined the full-time staff of Morgan Academy.
Avril began to show signs of Alzheimer’s Disease around 2011 and for the last six years she had been living at Benvie Home in Dundee.
Doug said: “Avril received excellent care there and we will always be grateful to the staff for what they did for her.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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