Tom Gourdie

Tom Gourdie MBE, DA, FSSI (18 May 1913 – 6 January 2005) was a prominent Scottish calligrapher, artist and teacher. He also was the author of several books, mainly on subject matter related to calligraphy.

Early life and initiation into calligraphy Gourdie was born in Cowdenbeath and attended Cowdenbeath High School. His father was a coal miner in Fife. In his teens Gourdie left school to work but returned and gained a scholarship to the Edinburgh College of Art, where he studied between 1932 and 1937. In 1937 he won a scholarship of fifty pounds to travel in Germany. Visiting Nuremberg in kilts, he and a friend were informed by some uniformed soldiers that their leader would like to meet the men in tartans, and they met Adolf Hitler.

Gourdie returned to the art college, where he received instruction in calligraphy from Irene Wellington. He developed a deep interest in the history of writing and its various forms, alphabets and styles.

During World War II, Gourdie joined the Royal Air Force and worked on camouflage and on three-dimensional maps used in preparing troops for landings in Sicily and northern France.

Teaching career After he was demobilised Gourdie took his teaching diploma and taught art at Banff Academy in 1946–47. He then returned to Fife as an art teacher at Kirkcaldy High School, where he remained till 1973, after which he retired early from his school teaching career in order to give more attention to calligraphy and to the national and international promotion of the teaching of handwriting.

In his later life Gourdie gained recognition throughout Britain as an expert calligrapher. His stated ambition was to improve the nation's handwriting, both that of children and of adults. He remained active in his field until his death in Kirkcaldy at the age of 91, coaching his nurses and carers in how to hold a pen. He visited schools, instructing children and teachers "to write in a simple, practical, calligraphic style". At the time he died children in Fife were being taught a script that he had based on a 1998 design, but he expressed disappointment that it had not been adopted throughout Scotland.

Private life Gourdie was remembered by those who knew him as an entertaining man within exacting, but generous nature, and a lively sense of humor. He also enjoyed music, collected recordings, and played the trombone and French horn.

Gourdie survived his wife, Lilias, and was survived in turn by their son, Tom, and daughter, Alison.

Representative works A Guide to Better Handwriting 1967 Calligraphic Styles 1979 Calligraphy for the Beginner 1982 Fun and Games 1981 Gothic Scripts 1987 Handwriting for Today 1971 I Can Write (with Delia Atkinson) Improve Your Handwriting 1975 Italic Handwriting 1974 Learning to Write 1981 Mastering Calligraphy 1984 Pattern Making for Schools 1959 Practice in Handwriting (reproducible worksheets) 1979 Simple Modern Hand Kay Dick and Tom Gourdie 1991 The Ladybird Book of Handwriting 1968 The Puffin Book of Handwriting 1980 The Sonnets of Shakespeare (calligraphy by Tom Gourdie) 1988 Tom Gourdie's Basic Calligraphic Hands 1984