An Aberdeen Royal Infirmary pharmacist who had two scholarships named after her has died aged 90.
Margaret Malloch, nee Arnold, was born in Glasgow on December 26, 1927.
Her father was a store-keeper at Mearnskirk Children’s TB Hospital, and her mother was a coat-maker, and she attended Thornliebank Primary School before going to Shawlands Academy.
She qualified in pharmacy at Glasgow’s Royal College of Technology.
In 1953, she married Jack Malloch, a principal of the Church of Scotland’s Presbyterian Teacher Training College in Ghana, and gained three stepchildren – twin sisters and their brother.
Mrs Malloch gave birth to a son in 1956 in Edinburgh, and after her husband returned from Ghana in 1957 he began teaching maths at Boroughmuir School.
In 1961, the couple moved to Aberdeen, where Mr Malloch taught at the Teacher Training College and Hazlehead Academy.
But Mr Malloch was suspended from Hazlehead in 1969 for refusing to register with the General Teaching Council – sparking a long legal battke, which he successfully won at the House of Lords.
During this time, Mrs Malloch became the breadwinner for the growing family, working at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary’s pharmacy.
To honour her for what she did for the family, her hubsband established two annual Margaret Malloch scholarships in law at Edinburgh University.
She was known to her friends as a respected photographer, artist, published short story writer, crossword expert, and elder and worship leader at Mannofield Church.
Her family described her as “strong-minded, courageous, generous, blunt but never rancorous”.
They added that her “lifelong friends were unwavering, her imaginative kindness unrivalled, her Christian faith unshakeable”, and “No friend ever gave her up”.
She was dedicated to her family of six children, David, Rod and Maggie and stepchildren Elizabeth, Alison and Philip.
They survive her, along with her brother Douglas and his wife, Isobel.
