Tributes paid to Tayport woman after remarkable life

Elizabeth Wilson died last month.Elizabeth Wilson died last month.
Elizabeth Wilson died last month. | Other 3rd Party
Tributes have been paid to a Tayport woman who died last month, following a remarkable life as one of Scotland’s youngest solicitors, a tribunal chair, university tutor and professional reflexologist.

Elizabeth May Wilson was raised and educated in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire. She gained her LLB degree at Glasgow University in 1966, aged just 19.

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Following a year in America, Liz became a law apprentice with Glasgow Corporation and was able to enrol formally as a solicitor in October 1969.

She joined H W Nimmo & Co in Wishaw before setting up her own business then amalgamating with another Wishaw practice in 1973. Further roles followed in the public sector as senior legal assistant and depute clerk of court for Perth Town Council and as Perth and Kinross District Council’s depute director of law and administration.

From 1983-1993, she and her friend Fiona E Raitt were founding partners of Dundee law firm Wilson and Raitt.

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Liz was a part-time appeal tribunals chair for almost 10 years, covering child support, social security and medical law.

She was appointed a convener member of Mental Health Tribunals for Scotland in 2004, retiring in 2016, aged 69.

Liz was a good tennis and golf player, and sailed in 60ft traditional wooden boats as part of the voyage crew on the west coast to the Hebrides and St Kilda. Other passions included the natural world and mountains, photography, seabirds and drumming.

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Liz became a professional reflexologist from 1992 until 2016. At the same time, she was a legal panel member of the appeals service, and also a tutor at Dundee University for three years.

As a Buddhist, she visited Nepal to see projects to build schools, hospitals and temples in remote areas. She also furthered the peace project, set up by Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre in the Scottish Borders, with a one-month pilgrimage in Tibet. Liz was also a celebrant at the centre.

Liz spent her final days at Bridge View care home.

It is a Tibetan Buddhist practice to wrap people in a mandala – a prayer blanket – before cremation. Manager nurse Heather Allison crocheted one, with every member of staff putting a stitch in it.

She is survived by five brothers and one sister.

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