Obituary: James Durkin, teacher and Labour councillor campaigned for radical political change in Edinburgh

Born: 26 December, 1932, in Edinburgh. Died: 13 May, 2012, in Leith, aged 79

JIM Durkin was a popular Edinburgh school teacher, first at the now-defunct St Anthony’s in Leith and latterly at its reincarnation, Holy Rood High, where he was a principal teacher of guidance, as well as his beloved geography. As guidance principal, he took responsibility not only for pupils’ education but for their wider well-being – “pastoral care” – when needed, as it too often was.

Jim Durkin may also have been the man who guided you round St Giles’ Cathedral in recent years. He knew every inch of that building, every second of its history, indeed most everything about his beloved city of Edinburgh itself, details which he did not hesitate to add during his guided tours.

His research into St Mary’s RC Cathedral, in a pamphlet, is also something taken away from Edinburgh by thousands of tourists every year. But to many beyond his pupils or tourists, he was better known as a fighter for social justice, a Labour Party stalwart and a former city councillor.

During his early political activism, he became known in the Scottish media as one of a group of “angry young men”, outspoken in their belief that Edinburgh needed radical political change, not least to get rid of the slums and brazen inequalities of the time. He and his fellow “angry young men”, including Pat Rogan, Owen Hand, Jimmy Kerr and Jimmy Hastie, were credited with pioneering Labour’s victory in the city’s District Council elections of 1984, which dramatically changed the city’s politics. Beyond, or perhaps parallel with politics and his passion for the rights of the dispossessed, Durkin always said it was his Catholic faith which sustained him.

James Durkin was born in Upper Grove Place, Fountainbridge, on Boxing Day, 1932, the youngest of four children. Never the healthiest of boys, and often teased and bullied because of his severe asthma, his studies suffered. He first attended St Ignatius Primary School on Glen Street, once described as “Dickensian, the worst school in Edinburgh, without even a playground”. He went on to St Anthony’s secondary, on Lochend Road, where he would later teach. Like many Scots of his generation, Durkin left school early, aged 14 just after the war, to help support his family.

He started out as an engraver (a job he continued into his 30s) but, after years of night school in the hope of becoming a teacher, would gain a BSc at Edinburgh University (Moray House) and later a BA. Geography became not only his subject but his passion and he would later drag his wife Margaret and daughter Katy around the world to show them not beaches but cathedrals or places of geological interest.

He was only 18 when it dawned on him that a lot of people in Edinburgh had an awful lot of money, while a lot of people had little or none.

He firmly believed that education could bridge that gap. He joined the Labour Party and soon became the president of Central Edinburgh’s young socialists. In 1960, he was elected councillor for Edinburgh’s Pilton ward, all the time doing his night school classes to realise his vocation – to become a teacher. It was during his Labour Party campaigning for Phyllis Herriot in Portobello that he met the love of his life, Margaret. They married in 1967 and their daughter Katy was born the following year. Along with Tom McGravey and Alex Napier, Durkin became a major influence in the party, helping set up the Labour Club in Musselburgh which would go on to provide much-needed finances for the party.

James Durkin died after a long illness in Victoria Manor nursing home in Leith where, according to his daughter, he received “the best of care”.

He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Margaret, their daughter Katy and grandson Patrick.

PHIL DAVISON