Leaving a legacy: Alison Holmes
What’s your St Andrews story?
A legacy bequest is one of the most personal gifts you can make to St Andrews. Alison Holmes (née McOwan) (MA 1952) left a gift in her will to the University, acknowledging three generations of family connections to the place where she made lifelong friends.
Alison Holmes was born in Singapore in 1932 to Dr George McOwan (BSc 1921; PhD 1923) and Janet (née Gibson) (MA 1927). She followed in her parents’ footsteps, matriculating in 1949 and making the most of everything St Andrews had to offer.
Alison studied for an Arts degree, made lifelong friends in McIntosh Hall, developed a passion for Scottish country dancing, and her silver St Andrews pin badge remains in the family today – she and her friends clubbed together to buy each in their group a badge to mark their respective 21st birthdays.
While she didn’t meet her match at St Andrews, Alison went on to marry Terry Holmes, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. Terry’s job in the Civil Service took them up and down the country before the couple settled in Pocklington, near York. Alison worked as a secretary for Nelson’s publishers, stopping to devote her energies to family life, caring for their three children.
Her sister, Elspeth Stewart (née McOwan) studied Modern and Scottish History at St Andrews, before pursuing a fulfilling career in teaching; and one of Alison’s grandchildren, Kirsten Holmes, graduated in 2022 with a BSc in Medicine.
When Alison died, she left a legacy to the University that had played such a pivotal role in her life, both in her own studies and in those of her mother, father, sister and grandchild.
We are incredibly grateful that Alison chose to remember the University in her will, and to her daughter, Judith Sutherland, for sharing her family’s St Andrews story.
Alison Holmes’ full St Andrews story will be published in our Chancellor’s Circle Newsletter later this year.
Will you leave a legacy as part of your St Andrews story?
Find out more about leaving a gift in your will here.