Obituary of Alexander Wallace Thomson

Wally was born in Perth, Western Australia. He spent his formative years in a gold mining town, Kalgoorlie, 600km to the west of Perth. He loved the dusty goldfields and fondly remembered his days in the bush in the area. He attended the Western Australian School of Mines and worked at the Lake View and Star Gold Mine. He left Australia in the early 50’s and travelled extensively finally ending up in Bristol, England working as an engineer at the Smelting Works in Avonmouth. It was there that he met his wife to be Beatrice Jean Smith who worked in the shorthand typing pool. Shortly afterwards he travelled to Canada to be reunited with his parents and sister Lilian who were at the time living in Toronto. Jean travelled to Toronto to be with him and they were married in June of 1955. In March of 1956 they returned to London, England before finally settling in Toronto in November of 1965. They had two children, both born in England, a son David John Thomson, who died in July of 2009, and a daughter, Mary Jean Thomson, now of Victoria, married to Roger Meager, and with two children, Katie Lynn Thomson and Tristan Owen Meager. Wally spent most of his working life in Toronto at George Brown College teaching drafting and shop drawing to apprentices, until his retirement in 1991. Afterwards he had a number of part-time positions, at Skydome as an usher and also at Leaside Gardens as a supervisor on weekends. During his retirement he and Jean travelled around the world, visiting Australia, New Zealand, India, France, and the United Kingdom. They spent many happy winter months in Bermuda and travelled to visit their daughter in Wales and their son in Canmore over the years. Jean died of cancer in December, 2000 and Wally went to Australia to spend time with his sister and her husband Peter and his family. He returned to Toronto in 2001 and managed to stay independent in the family home in Leaside until his recent death. He became a fixture in the community, riding his mountain bike right up until his death and frequenting the local coffee shops and restaurants. In 2006 mutual friends introduced him to Joice Dixon also of Leaside and they became close friends spending time together, going to the casino and Joices farm and also to many events with Joices family. He valued her enthusiasm and energy and they enjoyed many happy years of companionship. Her presence gave Dad a renewed focus. He loved time at the farm and peaceful walks marveling at the ants. Despite living most of his life in Canada he remained a staunch Aussie and never lost his love for the game of cricket. He would definitely say he had had a good innings. The family will receive friends at the HUMPHREY FUNERAL HOME A.W. MILES – NEWBIGGING CHAPEL, 1403 Bayview Avenue (south of Davisville Avenue) from 2-4 p.m. on Tuesday September 20th. for a celebration in the Rosedale Room where there will be a chance to share some memories of Wally. One of his wishes was to enhance the David Thomson Adventure Collection (which was started after Davids death) at Banff Public Library, 101 Bear St, Alberta, Canada, T1L 1H. Donations to that charity would be greatly accepted or flowers, if preferred. Condolences, photographs and memories may be forwarded through www.humphreymilesnewbigging.com.