World Oceans Day 2025 - Sir Charles Wyville Thomson

Sir Charles Wyville Thomson

On World Ocean day, we take a moment to honour one of Scotland’s most remarkable contributors to marine science - Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, born at Bonsyde House, Linlithgow, in 1830. His and his team’s groundbreaking work laid the foundations for modern oceanography and opened the deep sea to scientific discovery.

A Scottish Scholar with Global Impact

Sir Charles began life as Wyville Thomas Charles Thomson, the son of a surgeon for the British East India Company. After schooling at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. It wasn’t long before his passion turned toward the natural sciences, particularly botany and zoology.

By his early twenties, Thomson had already become a lecturer in botany at the University of Aberdeen. Over the next two decades, he held a series of prestigious academic posts in Ireland and Scotland, eventually becoming Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh in 1870. Among his students, none other than Arthur Conan Doyle, future creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Deep Sea Dreams

Thomson’s fascination with the deep sea - especially creatures like crinoids - led him to question prevailing scientific beliefs. Was there life in the deep ocean? Were its temperatures stable, as once thought?

In 1868 and 1860, he led deep-sea dredging missions aboard HMS Lightning and HMS Porcupine, proving that life existed at depths over 1200 metres. His findings, published in The Depths of the Sea (1873), were revolutionary, revealing diverse marine life and deep-sea thermal variability.

These pioneering efforts captured the attention of the British Government and Royal Navy - just as the rise of ocean telegraphy (undersea cables to transmit messages across vast ocean stretches) made understanding of the seabed more urgent than ever.

HMS Challenger: A Scientific Odyssey

In 1872, Thomson was appointed chief scientist of the most ambitious marine expedition the world had ever seen, the Challenger Expedition. A royal Navy vessel, HMS Challenger was refitted into a floating laboratory, stripped of most of its guns to make way for scientific equipment.

Route of HMS Challenger

Crew and Scientist hauling in a deep sea specimen

For three and half years, the ship sailed over 70,000 miles around the globe. The crew conducted countless dredgings, soundings, and temperature readings - and discovered over 4,500 new species of marine life. The expedition was the first to measure the depths of the Mariana Trench including Challenger Deep (the deepest part of the ocean known at the time), collected data on ocean currents, temperatures and water chemistry at 362 oceanographic stations, and mapped the first broad outline of the ocean basin.

A Legacy Etched in Glass and Ocean Floor

Upon his return, Thomson was knighted and began the monumental task of publishing the expedition’s findings but the burden proved immense. Plagued by ill health and stress, he eventually withdrew from public life and died in 1882 at his birthplace, Bonsyde House.

His work lives on. The massive 50-volume report of the Challenger Expedition, completed by his friend, colleague and expedition naturalist, Sir John Murray, remains a cornerstone of oceanographic research. Murray called the findings of the expedition:

“the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.”

Thomson’s memory is honoured in a stained-glass window at St Michael’s Parish Church, Linlithgow, and in the Wyville-Thomson Ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean. Even NASA paid tribute - the Space Shuttle Challenger was named after the ship that carried Sir Charles and his team across the seas.

World Oceans Day

HMS Challenger officer and scientific team

Over 150 years ago, the groundbreaking HMS Challenger expedition set sail, revealing the hidden wonders of our oceans and uncovering just how vital they are to life on Earth. Unfortunately, our oceans are now under threat from pollution, overfishing and climate change - all of which are putting unimaginable pressure of our blue planet. Why not channel the bold spirit of pioneers like Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, Sir John Murray, the scientific team and crew of the HMS Challenger and others - let their legacy inspire you to explore the wonders of our oceans and rise to the challenge of protecting and restoring them for future generations.

• Images courtesy of Internet Archive Book Images/Wikipedia

• Sources: Wikipedia/Undiscovered Scotland/Britannica/

Women's History Month - Nora Devine

Whether selling wool from her haberdashery shop on Linlithgow High Street or the driving force behind the Linlithgow Folk Club, Nora Devine was a well-known face in the town of Linlithgow.

Many of you may remember her babysitting for you when you were younger, or visiting her shop, where Low Port Records are today.  For all those knitters, cross-stitchers, and embroiderers, Nora’s shop had everything you could think of to create your crafty masterpiece.  I remember Nora, probably from when my nana purchased wool at the shop or latterly when I ventured briefly into the world of cross-stitching.  She always gave a warm welcome and had a sparkle in her eye.

However, it is her work with the Linlithgow Folk Club for which Nora is fondly remembered.  Not only did the Linlithgow Folk Club attract some big names from the traditional music world such as Aly Bain and Barbara Dickson but they were known for giving younger musicians an early opportunity to play before moving onto bigger things.

In recognition of her dedication supporting Scottish traditional music, Nora was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame in 2020 in their Services to Community category recognising individuals that work tirelessly to help their community and enrich the lives of others through selfless service or charitable work.

Murdoch Kennedy’s article in the Black Bitch (Issue 76, August 2020) and entry for the Hall of Fame outlines Nora’s contribution to the folk music scene in Linlithgow beautifully, particularly the words from Ian Walker (a popular Scottish traditional music artist) who was heavily involved in the Linlithgow Folk Club in his earlier days, suffice to say, according to Ian, “Nora Devine was the warm hearted, unassuming host at Linlithgow Folk Club. In fact, Nora was Linlithgow Folk Club and Linlithgow Folk Club was Nora.”  You can read the full entry here.

Ian Walker also dedicated a song to Nora after her passing and you can listen to it here.

Nora also supported the establishment of the Linlithgow Folk Festival Association but sadly passed away a few weeks before the first festival was held.  The festival became a popular and annual event on Linlithgow’s social calendar.  Funding from the annual Matt McGinn night (created by Murdoch Kennedy), funded the Nora Devine stage that was used during the Linlithgow Folk Festival and Ian Walker’s song launched the event each year.

Knowing that many people knew Nora, this article probably doesn’t do her justice, but we hope that by celebrating her contribution to Linlithgow and its traditional folk music heritage, that her legacy lives on, and continues to inspire people.

This is our last in the series for Women in History month, but we will be back next year with more, so please do get in touch if you have any suggestions.

Sources:

·       Facebook (The Real Linlithgow Page)

·       Local knowledge

·       Black Bitch (Issue 76, August 2020)

·       Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame

Guitar image courtesy of Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Disclaimer: This article was written under the understanding that the sources of information are correct, but we apologise if that may not be the case; no offence is intended, we merely wish to share and celebrate the achievements of the individual.

Women's History Month - Mary-Louise Coulouris (1939-2011)

Mary-Louise Colouris was a printmaker, painter, and muralist, who, along with her husband, moved to Linlithgow in 1976 and opened her art studio on Strawberry Bank.  Mary-Louise made an indelible mark on Linlithgow with her mural reflecting the heart and soul of Linlithgow Marches at Linlithgow train station in bold and vibrant colour, a trademark of Mary-Louise’s work. It can still be seen as you make your way up to Platform 1.

Mary-Louise was born in New York but spent her early years in Los Angeles where her father, George Coulouris, was a Hollywood actor of Greek descent.  The Greek aspect of her heritage, through the rich colours of the Mediterranean, inspired her palette and widened her subject matter.  She held several Greek government scholarships and held her last four exhibitions there.

She then taught for eight years in various locations in the UK including Scotland, and also Greece while she established herself as an artist.

From the 1980s, Mary-Louise won many prizes, scholarships, and residencies, including public art murals here in Linlithgow, the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and designed rugs for the new Scottish Poetry Library, a tapestry for Yale College, and watercolours for the House of Lords.

A prolific artist, Mary-Louise held many solo exhibitions in cities such as Athens, London, Edinburgh and Perth and her work can be found in public and private collections across the world including the Ashmolean Museum, New York Public Library, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Mary-Louise initially studied at the Chelsea School of Fine Art, completing her three-year diploma at the Slade School of Fine Art.  She went on to spent two years in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts after winning a French scholarship, and at Atelier 17 studied under master printmaker, Stanley William Hayter.

Mary Louise herself said “I am enthusiastic about people and what they achieve every day and what they have the potential to achieve.  People figure strongly in my work, as they did in the European tradition, from Mantegna to Leger.  Colour is essential to my way of working, as it communicates the emotional impact I want to achieve.”  This is certainly true in the Marches mural here in Linlithgow.

Sources:

• ·       www.colouris.net

• ·       Wikipedia

• ·       Guardian Obituary

 Images by Kayleigh Hirst.

Disclaimer: This article was written under the understanding that the sources of information are correct, but we apologise if that may not be the case; no offence is intended, we merely wish to share and celebrate the achievements of the individual.