James Clarkson

James will be hugely missed by his wife and best friend Roma (Broadfoot).  He was a man of many interests and careers. He was born in Scotland but his family moved to London at the outset of war and as a child he endured the blitz.  After leaving school he took a gap year travelling in Australia and working on a sheep station. On his return to the UK he enlisted in a highland regiment and went through accelerated officer training at Sandhurst.  On completion of training he immediately went through 5 years of very active service overseas, first where he led men through the jungles of Malaya, then onto Kenya and finally to Cyprus.  The violence he witnessed particularly in Cyprus had a lifelong impact on him. After leaving the army he immigrated to Canada where he worked in logging camps to pay his way through UBC. On graduation he moved east and finally took a job in Toronto as a producer at the CBC in the early days of television. At the same time he had developed a love of flying and gained his commercial license.  His ambition to become an airline pilot wasn’t realized but he did fly bush planes commercially on a part time basis. Somehow he found time to train as a racing driver and raced modified sports cars at Mosport.  In Halifax with the CBC he also developed a love of sailing which stood him in good stead when he moved from the CBC to Grampian Marine in which he invested. One of his perks as marketing director there was to participate in ocean races. Grampian went under in the recession of 1974 and he made yet another career change this time based in Montreal to sell Canadair (Bombardier) water bombers throughout the near and far east. When constant international travel started to affect his health he made still another career change this time to representing offshore companies selling product to the federal government which eventually led to a move from Montreal to Ottawa.

James was very athletic.  He represented his school and the army in track and field (100yards and high jump).  His speed aided his performance playing rugby, one of his great loves.  He met Roma on the squash court and she introduced him to tennis. Later they took up golf together. They also enjoyed hiking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing together. He had a beautiful voice. After retiring from marketing he volunteered at CNIB putting books on tape and at Voiceprint (now the National Broadcast Reading Service) reading articles from newspapers to the hearing impaired. He did occasional voiceover work particularly for War Amps documentaries. For several years he ran the Ottawa office of Voiceprint, finally retiring altogether at the age of 70 but continuing for some years as a volunteer reader. He was awarded their national volunteer of the year award in 2007. His musical interests and talents were varied.  He learnt the bagpipes while in Kenya and would play for special occasion latterly piping in the haggis each Robbie Burns night at the Shawbridge ski club. In Halifax he learnt to play the guitar and enjoyed singing the folk songs of the sixties at parties and in coffee shops. He even tried classical guitar in Spain while staying at a property he briefly owned there.

After a fall at home which resulted in bleeding on the brain James spent his last few days in the neurosurgery ward on the Civic campus. There he received excellent care and Roma would like to thank all the staff for their compassion towards both of them. He did not want a funeral.  However friends are invited to celebrate his life on May 15 from 3pm to 6pm on the upper deck of Rideau Sports Centre, 1 Donald Street. This location has the advantage of being outside with a roof in case of rain but guests should be aware that the one drawback is that it is on the second floor and there is no elevator.