Norrie Drummond

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From Norrie Drummond – Reporter and journalism lecturer – Press Gazette:

Thomson Foundation consultant Norrie Drummond died in hospital at Abergavenny, South Wales, on Good Friday. He was 59.

Norrie had been working in Afghanistan since December for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting and was coming to the end of his three month engagement when he collapsed on 16 March. He was treated at a German military hospital in Kabul before being flown back to the UK by air ambulance three days later.

Norrie Alexander Drummond started his journalistic career on the Scottish Daily Express in his home city of Glasgow. A job with the New Musical Express brought him south to London and then, after a spell freelancing in Britain and the US, he joined the South Wales Argus in Newport in 1971. In 1988 he moved to Bristol to work in the features department of the Western Daily Press where he remained (apart from a six-month sabbatical in North Africa) until 1999.

Norrie joined the Thomson team in 2001 and was a regular lecturer on Cardiff-based courses. In between these, he worked on Thomson projects in Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and India.

He interrupted his assignment in Afghanistan in January to travel to Bhubaneswar, in Orissa, to lead a Thomson programme there for the British High Commission.

John Ryan, press division controller, said: “Norrie was an old friend from before he or I joined the Thomson Foundation. We were neighbours in rural Monmouthshire and had worked together on the South Wales Argus. He was gifted, as many Scots are, with an explicit enunciation of the English language, and overseas participants on our Cardiff courses regularly commended him as the lecturer they could understand the most easily.

“That ability, plus a sound knowledge of the newspaper industry from its roots, made him a popular and valued
colleague who will be sorely missed.”

Mike Peirson, Thomson’s director for UK courses, said: “Summer courses in Cardiff won’t be the same without him.”

Norrie lived for 35 years with fellow journalist Annabel Hughes. He is survived by a family in Glasgow – an older brother, David (who also worked in the newspaper industry and was circulation manager of the Scottish Daily Express), a sister-in-law, Ena, a niece, Audrey, and nephews, Craig, Alan and Stuart.