Fergus Wilson

Quantity surveyor and pastor; Born: July 14, 1934; Died: January 27, 2012. FERGUS Wilson, who has died aged 77, was a quantity surveyor, but the main focus of his life was Yoker Evangelical Church, of which he was pastor for 20 years. When his parents moved to the new housing scheme of Knightswood in 1928, they joined the Yoker Mission Hall. His first school was bombed in the Clydebank blitz of 1941 and later he went to Victoria Drive Secondary School, of which he became dux.

The family evacuated to Sten- housemuir and Mr Wilson attended Larbert School. However, many weekends were spent in the mission meetings in Knightswood. It was after an evening service there in 1941 that Mr Wilson, as the tribute to him at his funeral put it, “gave his heart to the Lord”.

After the war, the family returned to Knightswood and over the years Mr Wilson was Sunday school teacher, superintendent, Bible class leader, vice-president and president of Yoker Mission, then finally pastor until 1998, by which time the mission had become Yoker Evangelical Church and sufficiently large to appoint its first full-time pastor, Alan Wells.

Mr Wilson left the eldership of Yoker Evangelical Church in 2004 to care for his wife, who died six years ago and whom he frequently described as the person who enabled him to undertake his Christian service..

When he left school he became an apprentice quantity surveyor with SCWS, remaining there for nearly 40 years until he took early retirement in 1990, finally becoming chief management surveyor.

Besides his involvement with the local church, Mr Wilson was heavily involved with the Scottish and international councils of what became Arab World Ministries. This involved frequent visits to Morocco and southern France. He also became the Scottish representative on the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.

In 1961 he married Margaret Mitchelhill, the Sunday school secretary, and they had three children, Lesley, David and Alan. Their home was “a sanctuary for friends and family, visiting missionaries and their children, evangelists who conducted annual missions to Yoker and spiritual giants who preached at the weekend monthly conferences”. Fergus Wilson is survived by his three children.