Obituary: Lady Suzanne Risk

Born: 10 February, 1920, in London.

Died: 28 June, 2011, in Edinburgh, aged 91.

Lady Suzanne Risk was inevitably best known as the wife of Sir Thomas Risk, the governor of the Bank of Scotland throughout the 1980s, just before the bank became part of the landslide into a murkier banking world. "Sue", as she was known to all, was herself a beacon to her husband.

A gifted amateur archer, she helped give him the strength to keep his arrow straight and true, not long before the bank was forced to yield its image of old-fashioned Scottish trustworthiness to global financial pressure - mergers, takeovers, things that left most of its customers totally confused.

Although they remained staunch supporters of the Bank of Scotland through their retirement years, Tom and Sue Risk were as befuddled as the rest of us by getting mail from names such as Halifax, HBOS, Lloyds and latterly from politicians who told us we actually owned it.

Lady Sue was once described in the media as the "First Lady of the Bank of Scotland" but she was far more than the woman behind the man behind the bank.

Although born in London, she spent most of her life in Scotland, having met her future husband, a Glaswegian, while both were in the RAF during and after the Second World War.

They lived first in the Glasgow area, where her four sons were born and grew up, and later in Edinburgh, where she lived the last 30 years of her life - near Dean Village and latterly Inverleith Place.

Along with Sir Thomas, from a famous old family of Glasgow lawyers, she became a staunch supporter of the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland's museums and whatever events promoted Scottish arts and culture.

Suzanne Eiloart was born in Ealing, west London, in February 1920, the only child of Bernard and Mildred Eiloart. Bernard was a British civil servant working for the Indian Electricity Company and, at the age of two, Suzanne was put on a ship to Karachi (at the time in British colonial India though now in Pakistan), where she lived until she was seven.

Her parents then sent her back to England, where she went to school in Exmouth, Devon, living in the famous Adgie's boarding house for girls whose parents were working in the colonial service, mostly India.

As an only child whose parents were overseas, life was not easy. She soon learned who her friends were, a lesson that stayed with her for the rest of her life.

After Hitler began bombing Britain, she volunteered for the RAF, initially as a sergeant in the Auxiliary Airforce Reserve, living and working through much of the London Blitz. At the time, Thomas Neilson Risk was an RAF pilot, a Flight-Lieutenant flying Catalina and Sunderland "flying boats", but they met only after the war, in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).Sue's fianc had died during the war but soon she fell for Tom and they eventually married in Sussex on 10 September, 1949. They would go on to live their lives together - travelling "from Australia to the Amazon, and all places in between", in the words of their eldest son Keith. It was a match made in heaven.

Although she continued as carer for the elderly in the RAF Benevolent Society, Sue sacrificed her hobbies as a serious gymnast, amateur actress and archer to marry and raise a family while Tom built up his career as a lawyer in Glasgow with the old firm of Maclay Murray Spens (where he worked for more than 30 years until being appointed governor of the Bank of Scotland in 1981). The couple first lived in Pollokshields and later Bearsden. When it seemed obvious he was going to be Bank of Scotland boss, they built a house on a plot near Edinburgh's Dean Village.

There they would stay until the slopes took their toll and they spent their latter years in a flat in Inverleith Place, often nipping off to their holiday home in Provence, France, where Sue, a gourmet cook, would make full use of local produce to feed the invited extended family.

When Tom, an alumnus of Kelvinside Academy and the University of Glasgow, was appointed governor of the Bank of Scotland, it was one of the biggest banking jobs in the world. The emergence of North Sea oil had allowed the bank to expand into the energy sector and thereby extend its reach globally. Scottish pound notes were still being rejected south of the Border (some still are, as we all know). But oil talked.

Like Tom, his wife was discreet. The press knew little about the couple. But friends say he consulted her on such issues as the introduction of HOBS - Home and Office Banking Services - a breakthrough in the industry which allowed Bank of Scotland customers to access their accounts on a TV screen, via the Prestel telephone network.

Possibly because of her love for cuisine, Lady Sue learned French in her 80s but used it mostly to translate old-fashioned Scottish dishes. She also took up golf late in life and the couple could be seen shooting for what we call old-fogey-bogeys at Murrayfield golf club.

"Burned in my memory," said her son Keith at her funeral, "is Sue and Tom in Venice for their 60th anniversary just over two years ago. The water was very choppy. Mum's usual dainty step onto the heaving boat was difficult, so the Italian boatman picked her up and jumped on board with Mum in his arms.

"As we looked on in horror, she laughed. Well, actually, it was a big girly giggle. Her heart was huge, strong, warm, kind, generous, sensitive, calm, caring, listening and wise."

Lady Suzanne Risk (ne Eiloart), who died in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, is survived by her husband Sir Thomas, their sons Keith, Timothy and Colin and six grandchildren. Another son, Michael, died in 1989.

PHIL DAVISON