Tom Smithson 1927 - 2020 A Good Life; Remembering Tom Smithson
board for HM Prisons; did a seven week sponsored walk from Caen to Montpellier, to raise money for sufferers of multiple sclerosis; was a member of the Thorp Arch village society; served as Deanery Synod representative; sat on the committee of Causeway until 2012 and sang in the choir at Thorp Arch until 2019.
Even though I never met Tom Smithson, I feel the warmth and force of his personality as I talk with Diane, his wife of more than 60 years. Together they contributed hugely to the life of Thorp Arch and the wider area.
Diane told me that when she gets cards recalling some of the things Tom did, her first response is to go and find him to tease him about it. She and the family would like to thank everyone who has sent cards and who came along to the funeral. Listening to her talk, I suspect that Tom is much missed by many.
After leaving the Royal Navy in 1947, Tom became involved in a printing company in Leeds, and it is here that his history intersects with that of the Causeway. Tom was a part of the original group that founded the magazine in 1983, and for a long time it was his company that printed the Causeway.
Tom Smithson 1927-2020
In 1968 Tom joined the Leeds Lions club, later becoming their president, and their motto of ‘We Serve’ expresses Tom’s approach to life. Diane told me how he set up exchange visits with a ‘daughter group’ based in Germany. For more than 30 years there has been an annual exchange for disabled young people, offering them the opportunity to travel. At the time it was rare for people with disabilities to travel as many of the support systems needed were not available. Although travel with a disability is still a challenge, thanks to Tom the situation is improved. His experiences led him to team up with disability campaigner Baroness Masham and together they successfully campaigned for the provision of purpose designed and built disabled toilets in English service stations. More locally Tom and Diane have lived a life committed to their community. In July 2000 they organised a ‘Victorian’ weekend in Thorp Arch, the streets were lined with straw, cars were banned, Tom dressed up as Mr Brown and Diane as Queen Victoria. Their hospitality is legendary; Diane told me how in the long hot summer of 1976 they had lost a huge beech tree in the garden. What do you do in that situation? Get a stump grinder in? No, you hold a weekend long BBQ to get rid of it! Tom was retired for more than 30 years, but instead of taking it easy, he sought out ways to serve the village and the wider community. He was a member of the independent monitoring
Some of the information in this article comes from ‘An Interview with Tom Smithson’ Causeway March 2012, the rest from conversations with Diane Smithson.
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