Father George Thompson

Former SNP MP and priest Born: September 11, 1928. Died: December 23, 2016. FATHER George Thompson, who has died aged 88, was a teacher and a former MP at Westminster for the SNP who later dedicated his life to the Catholic Church in his native Galloway.

Whether as teacher, MP or priest, his priority was his faith, with his country, Scotland, a very close second. He passionately believed in Scottish independence.

The elder of two sons of a gamekeeper, he was born on September 11, 1928, in The Glenkens, Galloway, a rural area in the valley formed by Loch Ken.

He is believed to have attended Castle Douglas High School. After his two-year National Service, he went to Rome to study for the priesthood.

“He was a reader and a thinker and was very aware of the history of Scotland,” Maurice Taylor, Bishop Emeritus of Galloway, told The Herald.

He joined the SNP on principle as he supported independence.

His initial career choice was to be a Catholic priest. He was sent to the Pontifical Scots College in Rome.

As a student there in the early 1950s, he was very popular, affable but with serious, even highbrow, interests.

“He became very interested in the oriental, non-Roman rites of the Catho- lic Church and in relations with the Orthodox Church,” Bishop Taylor said.

“His father died and George, the elder son, felt he had to be a financial support for his mother.

So he abandoned his studies and returned to Scotland where he got work with the Forestry Commission for seven years and then, after studying at the University of Edinburgh, he taught modern languages at Kirkcudbright Academy.

He taught French and German at Kirkcudbright, where the historical knowledge needed to explain the roots of those languages, and their inter-connection with English and Scots, reinforced his Scottish consciousness.

After his mother’s passing in 1973, he decided to take his belief in Scotland into politics.

He was chosen as SNP candidate for Westminster in the October 1974 general election and won the seat as Galloway’s first-ever SNP MP with a majority of 30 votes over the Tory.

In his maiden speech in the Commons he expressed pride in being a Gallovidian, a son of Galloway and paid tribute to his predecessor John Brewis, who he said was a Gallovidian by adoption.

He added: “I am a Gallovidian by necessity because I was born there. But I venture to think that, if I had been consulted beforehand, I should still have chosen to be born a Gallovidian.”

“Galloway is called the cradle of Scottish Christianity because Ninian came to Whithorn in the fourth century to preach the gospel there to the British tribes which then inhabited Galloway.

“Galloway is also called the cradle of Scottish independence because Robert the Bruce in 1307 began in Glentrool the campaign which he was to bring to a successful conclusion at Bannockburn seven years later. Galloway is a microcosm of Scotland.”

In 1979, when he was defeated by the Conservative Ian Lang (now Lord Lang of Monkton), Mr Thompson decided to return to teaching and to the Church.

Bishop Taylor added: “George and I were fellow students in Rome in the 1950s and by now I had become bishop of the Diocese of Galloway.

“It was no surprise when George told me that he had not lost his longing to be a priest. I gladly accepted him as a candidate for the priesthood and, to complete his studies, interrupted 30 years previously, he went to St John’s Seminary at Wonersh, near Guildford, Surrey.

“George was ordained to the priesthood by me in 1989 and served in three parishes – St Teresa’s, Dumfries, St Margaret of Scotland (he insisted on those last two words) in Irvine, and St Peter’s, Dalbeattie.

Aware he was ageing, he retired in 2005. For several years he returned to The Glenkens district and lived in his own house in St John’s Town of Dalry until, for his final few years, he resided in Senwick House, a residential care home in Borgue, Kirkcudbright, where he died peacefully.”

Father Thompson is survived by a younger brother.

Bishop William Nolan, the current Bishop of Galloway, said: “Father George Thompson was a man whose life was inspired and motivated by a deep faith in Jesus Christ, a faith he put into practice by embracing three vocations – teaching, politics and the priesthood. In each of these he sought to serve God and to serve others. We give thanks to God for all the good that he did throughout his life.”