Tributes have poured in for a blind Scottish historian and author who died aged 87 after a short illness.
Dr Fred Reid, originally from Glasgow, died on March 29 and, on Thursday April 17, his son and others whose lives he touched throughout his years, including former prime minister Gordon Brown, paid homage to his character and works.
Dr Reid, who once attended Shawlands Academy in Glasgow, was completely blind from the age of 14 from a detached retina.
Despite all the odds, he became a historian and an honorary professor at the University of Warwick.
He fell ill in January and, according to a notice on the University of Warwick’s website, “bore everything with charismatic stoicism and determination”, and was able to spend his last two weeks with his family and his carer.
He died at his home in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, after having spent some time being treated in hospital.
Former Labour prime minister Mr Brown has described Dr Reid as a “great of our time”.
Dr Reid met his wife, Etta, who was also blinded in her childhood, at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh.
The pair married in Balornock, Glasgow, in 1963 and they went on to have three children named Gavin, Les, and Julie, who sadly died around a year ago, aged 56.
He told his peers that out of all of his many achievements, the “best of all has been (his) family”.
In 2017, he and his wife both received honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick for their services to visually impaired people.
Mrs Reid was an NHS physiotherapist up until her retirement.
He has been credited for helping establish disability living allowance (DLA), and for improving access to work and inclusive mainstream education for the blind.
He was president of the National Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (1972-1975) and a Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) trustee (1974-1987, 1999-2006).
Former RNIB director general Ian Bruce told Radio 4’s In Touch programme he was as a kind, charming and “gifted leader of blind people with a formidable intellect”.
Mr Brown, who, when at Edinburgh University several years after Dr Reid, was partially blinded in an accident playing rugby, said he had “benefited from Fred’s kindness when, having lost the sight in my left eye, I faced operations to save the sight of my other eye”.
He added: “Fred was an inspiration, sending me a tape of history books.
“I have nothing but admiration and gratitude for all he has achieved as an author and his contribution to scholarship and the study of history and literature, but also as a campaigner for rights.”
Dr Reid was born to Margaret and his namesake father Fred Reid, a railway worker who went on to hold prominent roles for the National Union of Railwaymen in Glasgow and the west of Scotland.
He graduated with first class honours in History from Edinburgh in 1958, before obtaining a PhD at The Queen’s College, Oxford University in 1967.
He was a lecturer at the then new University of Warwick from 1966, alongside celebrated historian EP Thompson, who influenced Dr Reid’s work.
Dr Reid retired from Warwick in 1997.
His son, Les Reid, a journalist, said on the family’s behalf: “While we mourn his loss, we will all celebrate his unique and inspirational long life.
“Even in his final weeks, he was an example to all, showing remarkable mental strength, dignity and empathy, and retaining his sense of humour.
“He had enough time to say goodbye to family and friends and conclude directions for his autobiography to be finished.”
Professor Christopher Read, emeritus professor of history at the University of Warwick, said of his former colleague and close friend: “I don’t like to use the word inspirational since it is such a cliche but, in Fred’s case, it applies in its deepest and real sense.”
His interests over the years included mountaineering, Scottish country dancing, cycling, classical music and theatre, “but best of all has been my family”, he added in an online biography.
Dr Reid is survived by Etta, sons Les and Gavin, a scientist, and six grandchildren.
Their daughter Julie Reid, a Guardian production editor and journalist, died in 2024 aged 56.
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