On this day in 1995

Dumfreisshire-born garden designer Maggie Keswick Jencks founded Maggies Centres, to support cancer patients and their families. She was herself diagnosed with cancer with breast cancer at the age of 47, and received treatment, which was initially successful. However, her cancer returned five years later, and she died on 8 July 1995, aged 53.

Because of the way she was given the news of her cancer’s return, and her terminal diagnosis, Maggie and her husband, artist Charles Jencks, resolved to find ways to improve the experience not only for patients, but their families, going forward. The result was to be a network of cancer caring centres, called Maggies Centres.

The first Centre opened in Edinburgh the year after her death, in a striking stable block conversion, reflecting the fact that Maggie and Charles believed in the power of architecture to improve the human experience.

This was to establish a pattern of designing engaging buildings for each of the Centres, with Dundee’s Centre being the first building in the UK to be designed by Canada-born architect Frank Gehry.

There are now several Centres across Scotland, as well as England, Wales, and Hong Kong. Maggie Keswick Jencks’ oncology nurse, Laura Lee, became Maggie’s CEO.

Alongside Mary Slessor, Maggie Keswick Jencks was one of the first two women to appear in the Hall of Heroes at the National Wallace Monument.

 

...and on this day in 2017

Richard Findlay was born Dietrich Barth, in Berlin, in November 1943, and lost his father before the end of the Second World War. He came to Edinburgh and took the name Richard Findlay when his mother married Captain Ian Findlay, whom she met in Germany, and the couple moved their family back to Findlay’s native Scotland.

His obituary in The Herald of 19 July 2017 explains that he and his sister “had to learn English quickly, which they did through the pages of comics such as the Dandy and the Beano… With his mother speaking English in an American accent, and with post-war anti-German sentiments rife, Mr Findlay was smart enough to cover his tracks by pretending his mother actually was American.”

Broadcasting career

Richard became an actor and radio announcer, was employed in London at independent station Capital Radio, then returned to Scotland to work at Forth Radio, where he was the first voice heard on air upon its launch, and he eventually became Chief Executive. This was just the start of an impressive and varied career in media that saw him set up the National Theatre of Scotland, take the role of chairman of STV, and set up a publishing business.

The Scotsman’s obituary, on 19 July 2017, outlined the success of this venture, in which Findlay helped found Score Press “to acquire and operate local newspapers. The division grew to 45 weeklies in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. When he stood down as chief executive, the group was sold shortly afterwards to Emap, in 2004, for £394 million.”

Findlay died just a week after stepping down as chairman of the arts funding body, Creative Scotland, on the grounds of ill-health. He is buried at Edinburgh’s Dean Cemetery, where his headstone is topped by a sculpture of an old radio.