My husband, Malcolm Lochhead, who has died aged 74, was a university design lecturer and a much sought-after embroiderer, textile artist and designer whose work adorns many churches across Scotland.
His creations can be seen at Glasgow Cathedral (the shrine of Saint Mungo and the Nurses’ Chapel); the offices of the moderator of the General Assembly; the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle and the Chapel of St Hild at Durham Cathedral, among many other places. He also designed pulpit and lectern falls for churches, and was responsible for most of the furnishings of the Great Hall and the Queen’s Bedchamber at Stirling Castle.
Malcolm was born in Bellshill in North Lanarkshire, the youngest of five children to Walter Lochhead, an accountant, and his wife, Clara (nee Smart). After finishing at Hutcheson’s grammar school in Glasgow, where he was bullied for being gay, he enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art (1966-70) and became the first ever male student to study embroidery and weaving there. He was taught by the well-known Scottish embroiderer Kathleen Whyte, who exerted a great influence on him.
Although Malcolm was subsequently offered many tempting career offers, his mother insisted he should get a postgraduate teaching certificate at Jordanhill College of Education (1971) so that he would “always have something to fall back on”.
His first teaching post was at Coatbridge high school (1971-75), after which he joined the staff at Queen’s College Glasgow, first as a lecturer in design and then as a senior lecturer in marketing and communication, a post he continued to hold when the college amalgamated with Glasgow Polytechnic and became Glasgow Caledonian University.
It was during this period that he also became involved in the design, creation and supervision of so many embroidery projects, predominantly in the field of ecclesiastical design.
In 1990 he was responsible for the overall design of the Keeping Glasgow in Stitches community arts project, which involved more than 600 amateur participants when Glasgow was European Capital of Culture.
He remained at Glasgow Caledonian University until his retirement in 2009, by which time he was professor of design. Afterwards he was appointed emeritus professor of visual design, continuing to give masterclasses and to supervise masters dissertations.
Malcolm also designed small embroidery pieces for private clients for use in their homes, and carried on with his work on larger projects, including designing and supervising the making of a parochet for the synagogue in Giffnock in East Renfrewshire, an altar cloth for York Minster and the creation of the pulpit fall for St Andrew’s College in Christchurch, New Zealand. He exhibited worldwide and had a retrospective at Glasgow Cathedral in 2017.
We met in 1975 at a New Year’s Eve party and lived together after that, first as criminals (homosexuality was illegal in Scotland until 1981) and then as civil partners in 2006, before marrying in 2018.
Malcolm is survived by me, his sister, Allison, and his nephews and nieces.
