In Memoriam: Alex Thomson

Alexander Lumsden Thomson

March 10 1935 – February 25, 2022

Peacefully in Cornwall Community Hospital, leaving his wife, Barbara Joan (Hamilton), family and friends to mourn the loss of Alex’s life and his love of making music.

Alex pursued his music studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Glasgow. In the 1950s, he was hired by the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. From Verdun he later moved to Beaconsfield on the Lakeshore, and once more to the expanding North Island Regional School Board. In each locale, Alex developed music programmes starting from small classes and creating large bands of 100+ students performing in venues such as the opening of Expo 67, the lighting of the Peace Flame in Ottawa, plus travelling every spring on concert tours of The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Britain, Sweden Germany, Hungary and Australia.

Alex’s focus included vocal music as well. He sang and played the organ in Melville Presbyterian Church in
Westmount, Quebec, became the Music Director and organist in Union United Church in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

When his teaching took him to Rosemere, he continued to play the organ and develop choirs in Deux Montagnes and Ste.Therese as well as Rosemere United Churches. Then in the evenings, he added the role of conductor with the Lakeshore Light Opera Company which performed Gilbert and Sullivan works. And these are only a few highlights of his working career.

When he and his wife chose a hobby farm in Eastern Ontario for a retirement home, he was no sooner
unpacked when he was lured into St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church in the nearby town where the choir
blossomed from 7 to 20 singers in short order. He directed the Seaway Valley Singers for a few years, was
Guest Conductor of the Seaway Winds Concert Band for one winter season, and “for fun”, he said, he was one of a panel of judges at the Talent Shows at several local fairs.

Wherever Alex was, the joy of making music left a trail of smiling faces. Following his wishes, cremation has taken place, and plans for a memorial service will be shared later in the spring.

Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Alexander Lumsden
Thomson 1935-2022.

Published March 4, 2022, Brownlee Funeral Homes Inc

Alex was a music teacher from 1962-1968 at Beaconsfield High School.

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