Una Armour

After Una’s death some of us came to understand more fully how many different strands there were in her long life and many interests. Mainly in Scotland, but not entirely, these were not always easy to integrate either for her or for our culture. Yet it was a recognisably very large quality in Una that she took life in and “got it together” in so many different ways, unobtrusively, without a song and a dance, (yet with a great love of opera!), and with an Athene-like wisdom that came to be looked for and percolated into the psyche of those she met - family, friends, colleagues, clients and students.

After a childhood coming to terms with a congenital disability in her right hand and arm, in her later life one rarely realised that this existed. Wartime school life meant separation from parents as an only child evacuated from Edinburgh. Then later came the death of her mother and care for her father. Nevertheless she took an Arts degree and gained A.A.P.S.W., a graduate psychiatric social work qualification through Edinburgh University. She worked briefly in varied locations and painful social surroundings, as for instance in Polmont “Young Offenders Institution” before marrying Hamish Armour in 1956 and having daughter Catherine in 1957. Again there was pain mingled with pleasure when she realised she could not have another child, but turned the tears into the very meaningful experience of having an analysis with Winifred Rushforth, an eminent Jungian figure then in Edinburgh. She had however a very happy, long marriage to Hamish, a dedicated partner in Deloitte, Haskins and Sells. To many Edinburgh people they epitomised hospitable and affluent urban Edinburgh society, while also having a home in Hamish’s beloved native Argyll. Una herself had a strong spiritual faith which led her into Cramond Kirk and later becoming an elder.

How did all this combine with the Una who went off to fortnight-long intensive group work immersion in a Leicester-Tavistock conference on Authority, Leadership and Organisation, who joined the staff of Jordanhill College of Education in Glasgow, in Social Work Training, and who became part of the Counselling Service in S.I.H.R.? Not very many people in any one area of her life either knew about or gave much credence to her authority in other areas.

In the very early seventies the Scottish Institute of Human Relations was first formed by Dr John Sutherland who had recently retired from the Tavistock in London; the new Scottish organisation was seen to be an offspring of this. “Jock” had re-found in Edinburgh, and in Scotland more generally, a growing and exploring climate of opinion among the leaders of various caring professions. Prominent among these were doctors in mental health, psychologists, ministers and social workers. Una was one of several able members of the latter profession on the early Council of the Scottish Institute. She was assimilated into the Institute as a member and office bearer of the Scottish Pastoral Association when that compassionate and psychologically insightful group joined the S.I.H.R.

The Institute, with its basis in psycho-analytical and psychodynamic thinking and practice, was beginning to offer various courses in training psychoanalysts, family therapy workers, analytic group work and the early social worker mothers group, leading into a counselling service. The powerful early social worker emphasis was upon espousing “systemic” work, systems of relationship in all levels, from individual, family, group and organisations. This complemented its psychoanalytical basis, and went far beyond Freudian “drive” and “instinct” theory and deeply into the world of person, “object relations” theory and practice. If the old established analysts might tend to emphasise individual and introspective work, Jock Sutherland always held any split here and supported the social work and counselling bases of Institute work. Una was entirely in accord with this, and that part of educational work in clinical teaching and practice which took people in as clients and on courses, to send them out again having imbibed a level of insight and understanding for their work in the community. Latterly, while always a member of Council, she took on the Convenership of the Counselling Service. From its inception in 1981 she was a leading staff member for many years on the team of the Human Relations and Counselling Two Year Course, which touched on the many different levels of individual, group and organisational work; and counted several later OBEs among its students!

How then did all this theoretical basis relate to Una’s personal gifts? Una was never a theorist, yet it was all deeply there in her profoundly intuitive and emotionally rooted “meeting” with people on all levels of her life. There were no rose tinted spectacles, no baulking of depression, conflicts, or anger, or joy. She and her daughter knew this in their relationship. This had to be there in her marriage for her to have so successfully managed their so different characters, and to be able to say simply after his death “I don’t like life without Hamish”. In global understanding she preceded David Attenborough by years in her concise summing up “There are too many people!”

Earlier, I remember her saying “I’m not afraid of death, but I sure am afraid of the manner of getting there”, and sadly and ironically her stroke precipitated her back into the early disability. Yet this was incredibly worse – she was left until her last two days with a clear mind and useless limbs and muscles. Those near her watched her struggle while frustratingly weak and helpless. In the end peace.

Mona (Macdonald) Wickes