| Tom MacIver | |
 | |
| Birth: | 13 June 1907 Achduart, Highland, Scotland, UK |
| Death: | 18 April 2014 Kingussie, Highland, Scotland, UK |
| Age: | 106 years, 309 days |
| Country: |  UK
|
| Centenarian | |
Thomas MacIver, MBE (13 June 1907 – 18 April 2014) was a British centenarian who was the oldest living man in Scotland at the time of his death. He had been the oldest living man in Scotland since the death of Frank Saunders on 19 March 2013.
Biography[]
Tom MacIver was born in Achduart, Highland on 13 June 1907. He was the fifth child of Simon and Mary MacIver (née Tullo). His great-uncle lived to 100.
MacIver and his family moved to Altandhu when he was a child. During the First World War he and his brothers discovered a box that had come from the SS Laurentic while beachcombing. The ship had been sunk off the coast of Ireland in 1917, and the box contained the ship's logbook.
MacIver was schooled in Coigach until he was 14 and was educated at a secondary school in Ullapool before leaving to attend the University of Glasgow to study English and history for a degree in arts. After graduation he completed his teacher training at Jordanhill College in Glasgow and began teaching at Plockton High School in 1929.
In Plockton MacIver was the inaugural treasurer of the village hall, having attended the first meeting ever held there in September 1934, a member of the village’s drama club and one of the original members of Plockton Small Boat Sailing Club in which he served as commodore.
MacIver moved away from Plockton in 1936 to become headmaster of Kyle of Lochalsh Primary. In 1940, he married Anne Davidson in Easter Ross with whom he would have three children - Iain, Mairi, and Colin.
During the Second World War, MacIver served as part of the Home Guard. In 1947, he and his family relocated to Banffshire and he became headmaster of Marnoch Primary School. He later moved again to first Skye and then Dingwall for similar employment reasons.
MacIver helped found the Ross-shire Liberal Association in 1959 and later received an MBE for his services to politics. In 1960 he moved to Evanton in Easter Ross with his family. He was widowed five years later.
MacIver was a supporter of the Gaelic movement and was a friend of Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean. After retiring in 1970 MacIver took part in activities such as fishing, bowling, and golfing - and became a life member of the Alness Golf Club, the local community council and local social and angling clubs.
In 1994, MacIver published a book entitled 'Croft Remote' about a young boy called Murdo which was loosely based on his own childhood experiences of growing up in the West Highlands.
At the age of 102 MacIver was invited to be chieftain of the 2009 Coigach Gathering, where he recounted a story about not being able to receive a commemorative mug for the coronation of George V in 1912 - upon learning this a family friend found one of the mugs in an antique shop and gifted it to him.
On 13 August 2011, he became the oldest man born in Scotland (as James Hagan (1905-2011) and Frank Saunders (1906-2013) were born in England).
MacIver died on 18 April 2014, at the age of 106 years, 309 days. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living man in Scotland. His successor as the oldest man in Scotland was then-106-year-old Alf Smith.
References[]
- Obituary: Tom MacIver MBE, teacher and Scotland’s oldest man The Scotsman, 25 April 2014
| Scotland's Oldest Living Man Titleholders (V • E) |
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Andrew Amos • Alexander MacPhail • James Mathison • William Kirkpatrick • Thomas Maxwell • Robert Spence • William Green • Samuel Brown • James Webster • William Laidlaw • John Macrae • Thomas Senior • Peter Melville • Gavin Allan • John Young • Angus MacLeod • James Watt • Donald Maclellan • Robert Grieve • Henry Reid • John Macaskill • William Laing • George Wilkie • Donald MacInnes • James Matches • James Balnaves • James Morrison • Joseph McVinnie • Francis Mathison • John MacGregor • John Dykes • John Neill • James Ogilvie • Alexander Pirie • George Ferguson • William Mair • Jock Smith • Alexander Mackay • Tom Petrie • George McLaren • Henry Kempton • Andrew Main • Gilbert Campbell • John McNally • William Burns • Lachlan MacQueen • Gilbert Watson • Angus Orr • William Eeles • John Glendinning • Robert McBride • John Barr • John Morton • Andrew Drummond • Peter Cummings • James Hardy • David Henderson • Ernest Clucas • Ewen Ross • Sandy Gall • Alfred Anderson • James Wotherspoon • Bob Taggart • Sam Latter • John Hodge • Leo Tavelli • David Campbell • James Hagan • Frank Saunders • Tom MacIver • Alf Smith • Jimmy Sinclair • Chic Kennedy • Walter Sharp • George Pollard • David Crawford • Hugh Munro Kerr |