Teacher and swimming coach Winnie Ferguson, aged 89

Former teacher Winnie Ferguson has died peacefully at the age of 89.

She spent many years promoting swimming as a sport with different organisations while teaching at various schools in Dundee.

She started off her career as a nurse in Bristol, where she met her Dundonian husband-to-be George Ferguson after he was wounded during the war. The couple settled in Dundee shortly after the war ended and Mrs Ferguson trained to become a teacher.

She taught at Mid-Craigie infants, Fintry, Linlathen and Clepington primary schools then at St Vincent’s, Gilburn and finally Mill o’ Mains Primary School, before retiring in 1988.

After retiring she began a passionate interest in swimming, the church and her family, as a wife, mother to Malcolm and Colin, and grandmother to Charlotte. George died in 2011. She spent many years as an official, coach and a chaperone; a lifelong member and president of Belmont Swimming Club, Midlands District president and then president of the Scottish Amateur Swimming Association, attending major games and many international events.

She also volunteered as Scottish education convener, travelling the length and breadth of the country tutoring swimming teachers, organising courses and supporting clubs, training and developing teachers and coaches.

She ran numerous seminars and conferences on behalf of the Institute of Swimming Teachers and Coaches – all in a voluntary capacity.

She was for many years a member of Dundee Sports Council, Tayside and Fife Sports Association and a director of Dundee Leisure Trust.

In 2005 she was awarded a Sports Lifetime Commitment Award for services to sport by sportscotland.

She was a member of the women’s guild at Mains Church for almost 30 years and after a move to Monifieth in 1984 she became a member and later elder of Monifieth South Church.

A service of interment is to be held in Murie Cemetery, Errol, at 11am tomorrow, followed by a celebration of her life in St Rule’s Church, Monifieth, at 12.30pm.

Winnie Ferguson.