Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation
16 July 1950 – 6 April 2022
Tribute from the Board of the Foundation
It is with great sadness that we report the death of one of our Trustees, John Stevenson. He died on Wednesday 6 April 2022 after a courageous fight with cancer.
When John was invited to join the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation (NMSMF) Board of Trustees he said on accepting the invitation that it was a great honour for him. This was a typically modest response from John. However, it was our honour and privilege to have John as a member of our Board.
John was well-known for his work for UNISON, support for Community HEART and the Anti-Apartheid Movement and his commitment to the struggle against racism over many years.
John designed and created the NMSMF website and set-up and managed our social media accounts. The videos he produced, even while he was seriously ill and in hospital, helped our campaigning and fund-raising enormously especially during the pandemic when it was not possible to hold in-person events.
More than that, the videos John produced will be a resource for future generations. Among the many videos John produced were those for Nelson Mandela International Day and many significant anniversaries including the 40th anniversary of Nelson Mandela receiving the Freedom of the City of Glasgow (1981), the 35th anniversary of the naming of Nelson Mandela Place (1986), the anniversary of Mandela’s visit to Scotland (9 October 1993) and the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising (1976). A matter of days before his passing John produced our latest video commemorating the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre (21 March 1960). The videos were also notable for their professional and moving voice-overs by his daughter, Seonaid.
These videos, archived on our website, are one of the many important legacies left to us and future generations by John.
John was an intelligent, innovative, technically skilled, hard-working, diligent, reliable, respectful, humorous, modest and wonderful human being. He will be sorely missed by the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation and scores of individuals.
The Board of the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation sends its deepest condolences to his wife, Morag, his daughter, Seonaid and son, Robbie, on their loss.
Click HERE to see a fuller tribute to John on the UNISON Scotland website.
Brian Filling
Chair, Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation