Former editor of The People’s Friend and devoted DC Thomson employee of 37 years Sinclair Matheson has died at the age of 88.
Family members have been paying tributes to the great-grandfather, who passed away after a short illness at his home in Wormit earlier this month.
He was born George Sinclair Williamson Matheson on July 3 1936 in the house above his grandfather’s shop in Castletown, Caithness.
Sinclair’s late Brother Billy and his sister Ray – who now lives in St Andrews – were also born there.
His father George was a Castletown native and was married to Barbara Taylor Begg.
George had served throughout WWI as a private in the Seaforth Highlanders and won the Military Medal for an act of bravery.
Sinclair, or ‘Clair’ as he was known in Castletown, started school at the primary school in the village.
The new school building was being used by the military as a wartime hospital at the time.
This meant his initial school days were spent in various buildings around the village.
He then attended Castletown Junior Secondary School and gained his higher qualifications at Thurso Miller Academy.
Joining the army and travelling to Hong Kong
Sinclair went on to study at Edinburgh University, but did not complete his course.
Instead, he opted to do his National Service in the army.
This provided him with a perfect opportunity to see different parts of the world for free.
At that time the British Army was still using many ships to transport troops to
the Far East.
Places like Singapore and Hong Kong were still under British control.
Sinclair was posted to the latter, boarding the HMS Nevasa and calling at various ports on its month long voyage.
The outward and return journeys accounted for a big chunk out of his national serviceman’s tour of duty.
But he served most of his time in the army as a sergeant in the Royal Army Education Corps.
And after being released from military service he spent time working in the personnel office of the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s fast reactor at Dounreay in Caithness.
Sinclair joins DC Thomson and meets his future wife Kate
In his spare time he sometimes provided copy for the local paper in the far north.
And this led to a career change in 1963 as he was offered a job at DC Thomson in Dundee.
The company employed him in the magazine section of the old Fiction Department in Bank Street and Sinclair met his future wife Kate there.
Kate was already working as a sub-editor and they worked on the successful teenage magazine Jackie together.
She was even featured dancing in the corner of the front cover of some of the first issues of the Jackie magazine.
Sinclair courted her for quite a while.
He would sit in his old Humber Hawk car outside her house as she stubbornly stayed in her room and refused his advances.
George Carr – editor of the Fiction Department at the time – would joke to Kate that he had brought a young man down from Caithness especially for her.
Little did George know that this would come to fruition.
And the couple married in September 1965 at St Stephen’s Church in Broughty Ferry.
Sinclair becomes the editor of The People’s Friend
During his time at DC Thomson, Sinclair worked on various other publications.
These included Annabel, The Red Letter Story World, and The People’s Friend in 1979, serving under the then editor Douglas Neilson.
And he succeeded Douglas as editor when he retired 10 years later, remaining in this role for 12 years until he called time on his own career.
He inherited an excellent and hard working staff after becoming editor.
At the time, those working on magazines aimed at a female readership were based at the Kingsway Building.
One of the most memorable and terrifying events for Sinclair was when he faced the BBC and STV/Grampian’s cameras.
The broadcasters interviewed him to mark the 125th anniversary of the foundation of The People’s Friend.
Another memorable event was when Sinclair and his colleague Harry Watson visited 10
Downing Street.
They met with Cherie Blair, wife of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.
She had taken an interest in women’s magazines.
Family members consider whether this was part of an effort to garner votes for her husband.
Either way the DC Thomson colleagues were not able to oblige.
Family life on both sides of the Tay
Sinclair and Kate first found a home together in Fisher Street, Broughty Ferry.
They then moved to Downfield in Dundee and their two daughters, Lesley and Kirsten were born.
Finally, the family moved across the Tay in 1975 to Crosshill Terrace in Wormit, allowing their daughters to attend Madras College in St Andrews.
Many happy years were spent in Wormit with his girls growing up and getting
married.
This was followed by the joys of having their grandchildren Scott, Lauren, Ellidh, Jessica, and Alastair.
Then came great grandchildren, with the births of Grace, Christopher and Willow.
Sinclair did not play many sports, but had taken up golf shortly before coming to Dundee.
He joined the Press Golf Club in Monifieth and endured the jokes of colleagues after
developing a horrible slice when hitting the ball.
On one occasion he even sliced a ball onto the nearby railway track.
But Sinclair had the last laugh when the ball bounced back onto the middle of the fairway.
This was the only time he actually reached the fairway.
Sinclair also played at Scotscraig Golf Club in Tayport and at St Andrews.
He also took up lawn bowls at Wormit and even won one club championship in 2000, serving twice as the president of the Wormit Bowling Club.
Retirement leads to memorable family holidays
When Sinclair retired from DC Thomson in July 2001, he had spent 37 years at the company.
His favourite pastimes after calling it a day included playing bowls, golfing with friends, gardening, and going on memorable trips to Europe.
Indeed, holidays were a feature of family life and they travelled throughout Scotland and beyond, seeing cities as far flung as Moscow and Quebec.
One of the most memorable of these trips was a bus trip to Poland, Belarus, and Russia.
Russia was a more peaceful and welcoming place when they visited.
Sinclair also tried his hand at writing stories for The People’s Friend and had some success.
But he did admit he found it was much harder work on the “other side of the desk”.
His passion for DC Thomson didn’t cease after retirement.
Sinclair was a keen subscriber to The Courier until he became unwell earlier this year.
He would also read the print edition from front to back, picking out any errors that may have been missed.
During this past year, there was the sad death of his youngest daughter Kirsten in April at the age of 54 due to pancreatic cancer.
This was followed by the passing of his wife of 59 years, Kate, in May.
Sinclair passed away peacefully on November 1 after a short illness, with his daughter Lesley by his side.
His funeral will be held at the Perth Crematorium on November 22 at 11.30am.
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