English Chess Forum

The recently-uploaded, short-lived London Chess Magazine from 1983, has the following plea to find a missing person:

"An unlikely topic for a Chess Magazine but I have had the following request from the Glasgow Chess Club. James Watson Dick has been missing since 14th April 1983 and was last known to have come to London. He is a school History teacher, aged 40, 5ft 10 in., with darkish hair and a Scottish accent. He is quiet and very friendly and has a Scottish grading of 2000 which is about 175 BCF. His mother and sister are very worried about him as he has just upped and left home taking little more than the clothes he was wearing."

Does anybody know if he was found?

The uploaded PDF may be be found in the rapidly expanding BritBase library...

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/britb ... ments.html

The story I've been told about Jim Dick (as he was known in the Scottish chess community) is that he boarded a plane for South America (Bolivia?) at Heathrow. What happened thereafter, who knows...

This is where the British Newspaper Archive is some help (but you need to subscribe). Two years later, the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser - Friday 26 July 1985 carried a letter from a firm of solicitors, saying that someone with the exact same name owed money and would he care to turn up to challenge this accusation. The Leicester Mercury covered the story in 1983 and said he had been traced to London, where he had cashed a cheque. They appealed to Leicester chess players to look out for him. Another report has someone of the same name marrying Aileen Morrow in 1974.

The electronic parrot (AI) gives some information, but half of it is wrong.

Kevin Thurlow wrote:

"This is where the British Newspaper Archive is some help (but you need to subscribe)."

You don't need to subscribe if you can find a local library which provides the facility. Such libraries seem to be quite frequent.

A family tree on ancestry (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/ ... 8378/facts) says he died in Glasgow in 1991 (no sources). A search on https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, however, only has one match for the death of James Watson Dick between 1983 and 2025, and that was in 1990. If I had any credits left I'd buy the death certificate, but unfortunately mine expired, unused, a few months ago.

"You don't need to subscribe if you can find a local library which provides the facility. Such libraries seem to be quite frequent."

Thanks for that - I'll enquire accordingly.

I think the James Watson Dick who married Aileen Summers Morrow in 1974 might be a different person as the couple are still alive, living in Scotland.

I too do not believe that the person who married is the same Jim Dick.

Jim disappeared just after playing in a congress I organised. He withdrew money from a London bank (I thought it was from a cash machine but could be wrong). John's version agrees with mine.

I believe his sister eventually had him declared dead to allow his family to deal with his estate.

"I too do not believe that the person who married is the same Jim Dick."

James & Watson are fairly normal Scottish names of course. The one who was married was from Elgin, and they were married in Lossiemouth (both of which are near to Inverness) rather than the Glasgow area.

"A family tree on ancestry (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/ ... 8378/facts) says he died in Glasgow in 1991 (no sources). "

and edit...

Scottish Law (and UK Law I believe) allows the court to presume death after 7 years in certain circumstances, so that would fit. https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/taking-ac ... -scotland/

There is a picture of a young Jim Dick on the Chess Scotland site:
https://www.chessscotland.com/documents ... we1972.htm
I don't find the caption very easy to understand, but I think it's saying that Jim Dick is the one wearing the checked jacket, with Steven Hamilton's hand on his left shoulder.

Bolivia? Can't we have a few easy ones? There is a better chance of finding Lord Lucan playing Kriegspiel at Simpson's than tracing this guy.