Edward Thomason

He was the son of Edward Thomason (b. 5 Nov 1885, Horn, Lunnasting) and Mary Margaret Anderson (b. 15 Sep 1887, Treawick, Whalsay). He married Dinah Janet McPherson Patterson Hunter, (b. 10 Jan 1921, Nesting) on 25 November 1949 at Newington, Edinburgh.

He was Prudential Assurance Manager in Lerwick, and a councillor, later Convener, retiring in 1994. His book Island Challenge (1997) reflects in part on the era of North Sea Oil. He also provided an introduction to Mindin Rhoda, a Festschrift for the poet Rhoda Bulter whose mother also came from 'Da Horn'.

In an obituary in The Herald, Edward was described as overseeing the "transformation of his native islands from being a poverty-stricken community dominated by the highest unemployment rate in Scotland and haemorrhaging its most able young population to an island group enjoying an unprecedentedly high standard of living" in reference to his work securing the Zetland County Council Act 1974. That act granted the Zetland County Council and Shetland Islands Council substantial powers to ensure that Shetland was able to benefit from the boom in oil production which began in the 1970's.

In the late 1950s Edward was one of a group of islanders wanted to fix Shetland's deep social problems. The collapse of the whaling and herring industry had hurt the isles financially. The group, successively called the Shetland Development Council and the Shetland Council of Social Service, persuaded businessmen to establish a canning factory and launched an initiative to sell locally-built boats via London's International Boat Show.

In 1989, he was granted an OBE and he spent his final living months in the eponymous Edward Thomason House for the elderly in Lerwick.

He unsuccessfully contested the Unst North seat at the 1973 County Council election.