OBITUARY
Victor Malcomson FBIE Article reproduced with kind permission of The Company of Fellow’s of the British Institute of Embalmers
V
ictor was born on 24th May 1923 and was proud of the fact that he shared his birthday with that of Queen Victoria (only the day, not the year, obviously). He has been a member of the Institute since 1948 and was very much involved in the formation of the Northern Ireland Division, which was formed in 1949. Their first meeting was held at The Wellington Park Hotel, Belfast, and W. A. Doggart was the first Chairman J. T. Doggart (that’s Billy Doggart’s father) was the first secretary, the Vice Chairman was Tommy Bell, and Victor was a member of the committee. (Interestingly the Midland Division bought their Chairman’s Jewel, although it is fair to say that when their first Chairman, W. A. Doggart, died in 1951, they bought their current chain of office in his memory). The Division was very important to Victor, and Victor was so important to the Division. Ten years after its formation (in 1959) he became its secretary, and he was still secretary in 1980. That’s some stint – over 20 years! (there are only a couple of other people who have achieved that sort of service, and they are Ralph Gascoigne, who was secretary of the Midland Division for twenty years, with a break to be National President, and Rachel Shipley, who is currently in her 21st year as secretary of The Midland Division). Although Victor became secretary in 1959 and gave up the position in 1980, it wasn’t a completely unbroken period of service, as he took a year out in 1961 to be the Chairman of the Division before resuming the secretarial duties. Victor was dedicated to both the Northern Ireland Division and the Institute itself. He was interested in education and was the principle of the Northern Ireland School of Embalming. He was interested in maintaining high standards, and became an examiner for the National Examination Board of Embalmers. He was interested in helping others, and became a member of the Kenyon’s DVI team. (In fact he was a great favourite of Des Henley & John Nichols). He attended various emergencies including Aberfan in 1966 and the Air India incident off the Irish coast in 1985.
But it wasn’t all work. Victor has many other interests. He was an ardent cricket fan, passionately supporting Lurgan Cricket Club for decades. He had an enthusiastic interest in singing and some of the older members may remember he gave many a fine rendition at conference, in the days when conference was a week long, and delegates used to dress up and sing. For all this work, and all this dedication to the Institute, Victor had never been the National President. This had been his choice. When he was in business, working with his family firm, Malcomson’s of Lurgan, he continually declined to accept nomination, because he thought he would not be able to dedicate sufficient time and effort to do the position justice. Once he sold the company he continued to refuse nomination, this time on the grounds that he was too old, and the position should be given to a younger, more energetic person. However he did accept the nomination to be Master Fellow on the understanding that it would only be for twelve months, and so he held the office of Master Fellow from 2005 to 2006. Victor sadly passed away on Wednesday 4th November 2020, in his 98th year. FuneralTimes | 5
