Tommy showing no signs of slowing in his 90th year

Pensioners' champion and octogenarian Tommy Carson is a determined charity fundraiser, writes John Gibson.

The man's a marvel. His 90th year looming and he turns up bang on time for our midday blether.

A spick and typically span Tommy Carson. Shoes shone with their Black Watch shine. Tartan Tam o' Shanter at a jaunty angle. For sure, you wouldn't take him for a man soon to embrace his 89th birthday with his characteristic full-of-the-joys smile.

Tommy has never broadcast the fact that he is by birth a Glaswegian.

He is fiercely "Edinburgh".

He is, though, short on detail on why he was born in Weegieland, just weeks before he was brought to the Capital.

"My dad had a rough time in the Merchant Navy, bombed and torpedoed. Myself, I wanted get some of the wartime action and I volunteered for the army at 17. A burst eardrum put paid to any front-line heroics but I was trapped, so to speak, with the Black Watch in the Shetlands. The U-boats had us hemmed in."

He had begun a painter and decorator apprenticeship but found he had a natural rapport with his pals, singing and gagging.

The "wee dance band" he formed led to spots on variety bills back in Edinburgh at the Palladium and Capitol theatres. For a living wage Tommy worked with the civil service at Chesser until he retired 24 years ago.

He developed a productive association with Scotland's pensioners, championing them locally at Leith Town Hall with concerts there funded by the East of Scotland Bookmakers. For the past eight years he has organised the Christmas party for 170 for the Scottish Pensions Association at Leith Town Hall and latterly at the Southside Community Centre.

"The party's now the major event on my calendar," says Tommy, "something I couldn't manage without the support of Giuliano Binanti, who brings the food and refreshment for the lunch from his Union Place restaurant and his own staff. We are a kind of 'old firm'."

Tommy, presented with a Citizen of Edinburgh Award in 2007 by Lord Provost George Grubb, has raised thousands for charities and is still a Festival guide.

He met his wife Marian in York when he was in the army.

He says: "She's 84, we married in 1945. We've lived in Stenhouse most of our married life. We have two daughters, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren."

They help keep that smile on his face and that shine on his shoes.