Thomas Fergus Stewart T.D. M.B. Ch.B. F.R.F.P.S. M.R.C.P. F.F.Hom (29 April 1910 – 18 June 1972) was on the Board of Management of the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Somerville Stewart M.B. Ch.B. (1913 – 18 June 1972), who was also a homeopath, were among the sixteen homeopaths who died in the Staines Trident air disaster in June, 1972.
Homeopaths and homeopathic supporters including Isabel Campbell, Dudley Wooton Everitt, Marjorie Golomb, Elizabeth Sharp Hawthorn, Sergei William Kadleigh, sisters Kawther Theresa Kandalla and Ludi Marylone Kandalla, Joan Mackover, John Robertson Raeside, and Mary Stevenson, also died in that fatal crash.
T Fergus Stewart wrote Homeopathy, virus diseases and researches in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy: 48,39,1959, Dr Tom Paterson in the British Homeopathic Journal, 56, 1967, pp.257-60
Obituary for Elizabeth Somerville and Thomas Fergus Stewart in The British Medical Journal vol. 3, no. 5819 (15 July, 1972), page 181
Dr. T. F. Stewart, medical superintendent of Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, died in the Trident air disaster at Heathrow on 18 June. Dr. Stewart was 62 and his wife 59.
Thomas Fergus Stewart was born on 29 April 1910 and graduated in medicine at Glasgow University in 1936 after distinguishing himself at rugby and boxing.
His wife, Betty, who also graduated in 1936, was a gentle and sincere person.
An Obituary for Elizabeth Somerville and Thomas Fergus Stewart was provided by Dr. Hamish William Boyd in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 4. (October, 1972), page 247:
Dr. T. Fergus Stewart and his wife Betty were both tragically killed in the Trident air disaster at Heathrow on Sunday, 18 June 1972. He was 62.
Thomas Fergus Stewart graduated M.B., Ch.B., at Glasgow University in 1936, after distinguishing himself in both rugby and boxing. After holding house physician posts at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, Yorkhill and Bellshill, he was appointed dispensary physician at the Victoria Infirmary from 1939 to 1941. He had gained the degree of F.R.F.P.S. (Glasgow) in 1938, and his diploma of Membership of the Faculty of Homoeopathy (M.F.Hom.) in 1941.
He entered the Royal Air Force in 1941, and rose to the rank of Squadron Leader by 1946. He continued his association with the City of Glasgow Squadron (602) Royal Auxiliary Air Force after the war as Senior Medical Officer, and developed his general practice together with his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Hamilton, in the Langside area of Glasgow. He became a physician to the Homoeopathic Dispensary in 1946, and S.H.M.O. to the hospital in 1955. In 1957, he gained the diploma of F.F.Hom., and was appointed Consultant Physician to the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital in 1958, taking over the duties of Medical Superintendent in 1963, on the death of the late Dr. Douglas Ross. He always remained a tremendous enthusiast for the promotion of Homoeopathy, was President of the British Congress at Gleneagles in 1961, and in the last few years had been British representative of the International Homoeopathic League, attending Congresses in Paris, Athens, London, Buenos Aires and Philadelphia. He had contributed numerous papers to the British Homoeopathic Journal and took a prominent part in the post-graduate teaching in Glasgow.
Tommy Stewart had a wide range of interests. He was a sincere and practising Christian and was an office bearer of the Trades House Lodge of Glasgow, and a member of the Kelvin Rotary Club. He was a keen skier and sailor, taking up both these sports in his fifties. In working with him, first in practice and then in hospital I always found him a man of tremendous energy and enthusiasm. He was an optimist and could always see success lying ahead, and his own personal efforts were in no small measure associated with the fruition of the plans for the new Homoeopathic Hospital due to be built shortly in Glasgow.
His wife, Betty, was a gentle and sincere person and devoted much of her time to the work of the Hospital. Both will be sadly missed by patients and colleagues alike.
They are survived by a son and a daughter, both of whom are married with young families.
Memorial Address, given by Dr. Llewelyn Ralph Twentyman, at the Memorial Service commemorating those who died in the aircraft disaster. Held at the church of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, London W.C.1, on Thursday, 29 June, 1972. Printed in the British Homeopathic Journal vol. 61, no. 3 (July, 1972), pages 130-133:
It is not just sadness that overwhelms us, but it is how to find words to honour all these our friends, and how somehow, through honouring them, to find out the meaning of this catastrophe and of their sacrifice.
Tommy Stewart,…
THOMAS FERGUS STEWART and HIS WIFE ELIZABETH; there are so many qualities and capacities amongst all these. I doubt if he had an enemy on earth. He met one with bright and sparkling eyes. He would enter at once into a good wrestling with one. Sometimes I thought it was like two stags coming from both sides of a mountain and entangling their antlers for a cheerful wrestling match. He was never so happy as when we were in agreement, and never so unhappy as when there was discord and strife. And certainly amongst the international world to which he went as Vice-President he was universally loved and the tributes we heard in Brussels were all of this great pleasure and delight in his eager, energetic enthusiasm.
Here in Canada Dec 2017 chanced to find an old postcard in a drawer -sent June 1972 by medical family Glasgow to medical family in Canada informing of the loss of Drs. Stewart “in Air Crash.”