36537: Norman Macsween, Reverend

Tormod Chaluim Alasdair

Norman (1920-2008) was a son of Malcolm MacSween and Ann Macleod, 26 Scalpay, Harris. He was a Minister of Religion.

In 1952, he married Sophie Macleod, 50 Balallan. Norman and Sophie lived at Scarista and they had three children.

Norman came to Kinloch from Morven and was inducted on 16 November 1977.  Rev MacSween was happy in Kinloch and Kinloch was happy with him but the passing of the years took him in 1986 to his retirement date.

He was Chaplain to the Western Isles Hospital from 1989-1991 and from 1995-1999.

Glasgow Herald Obituary:  Fisherman and Kirk minister; Born April 21, 1920; Died May 16, 2008 Norman Macsween, who has died aged 88, was a former fisherman who gave up the sea to become a Church of Scotland minister and beloved Stornoway hospital chaplain. A man of sympathy, compassion and grace, Macsween died suddenly in the town's Dun Eisdean Care Home, where he had been admitted for respite care.

A native of Scalpay in Harris, he left school at 14 and followed his father's footsteps in becoming a fisherman. In his younger days, Scalpay was a thriving fishing community and there were five curing stations coping with the herring landings. Church life and family worship were normal, and the family travelled by boat on a Sunday to the church in Tarbert on the Harris mainland.

However, he decided to forsake the sea and become a fisher of men when he felt called to the ministry. Because his formal education had come to an end when he left school, he was assisted by the local headmaster and teachers, as well as the parish minister. He then went to Skerry's College in Glasgow to gain qualification for university entrance before becoming a student at Edinburgh University, where he graduated with an arts degree, and then studied divinity for a further three years at New College.

He began his ministry on Barra, a predominantly Roman Catholic island, and was then called to the congregation of Strachur and Strathlachlan in Argyll, where he remained for eight years. A member of the congregation there was Sir Fitzroy Maclean, the distinguished war hero. During this period, Macsween was also interim-moderator for Lochgoilhead.

As a Gaelic preacher, he then accepted a call to Manish-Scarista in his native Harris, where he spent another eight years before being called to Morven in Argyll. After five years there, he returned to Lewis as minister of Kinloch, which was his final congregation.

After this he became a hospital chaplain – two years in the old Lewis Hospital in Stornoway and three in the new Western Isles Hospital. Because of the warmth and graciousness of his personality, he was able to comfort not only the patients and their families, but always had a word for the staff as well. In 1994, he was awarded the Ker Memorial Rosebowl, presented by the health board, for services to the community.

Macsween met his wife, Sophie, at the home of her uncle, the Rev Murdo Macleod, minister at Tarbert in Harris. She was studying at a missionary college in Edinburgh when he was at New College.

At the funeral service in Martin's Memorial Church in Stornoway, the Rev Thomas McNeill said that as a hospital chaplain Macsween was "one of a kind".

He had touched the lives of many people through his ministry. In addition to his love of God and his family, he had three other loves: fishing on loch and sea, a love of Harris and its people, and a love for a cup of tea.

The affection in which Macsween was held was evident at the funeral, when several hundred took part in the traditional procession behind the bier. He is survived by his wife and two sons and a daughter.

By BILL LUCAS