Gillian Thom

by Dr. Iain Corness

The new president of the Pattaya International Ladies Club (PILC) is Gillian Thom, a poised and polished lady who attacks life with a gusto and if given the chance, would change the world by putting more women in charge. I asked “why”? The reply was interesting. “We need more nurturing going on at the moment. Women would make the world a gentler place.” And in case you think she is merely a good speaker, a public face and extremely decorative with her PILC pendant, she is a dab hand at erecting post and rail fencing as well. Gilliam Thom has a very rounded character.
Some of that character has to be put down to her somewhat different childhood. Gillian was born in India to a British army officer and his WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) wife, but was sent to boarding school in the UK when she was eight years old. “I remember such a lot about India. It was the last days of the Raj,” said Gillian fondly.
However, after three years in boarding school, her parents returned to the UK and Gillian was sent to a co-ed government school. “It was terrifying aged 11, but was fun after a while!” she said with a grin.
School was also noteworthy in the fact that it was not till later in her school life that she found she was short-sighted. She was amazed when given her first set of glasses that she could actually read what was on the blackboard. That goes a long way to explain Gillian’s lack of application while at school. “Flashes of brilliance, but I was very lazy,” she admitted.
After her secondary education, she had no real idea of what she wanted to do, but took a secretarial course to fill in the time. This was after she had failed the medical to be a mounted policewoman! The eyesight again!
When she was 20 years old, a position came up as a tour guide with a Danish company which was offering cheap packaged holidays. What an opportunity for a young woman who had already experienced travel and life abroad! Seizing it with both hands, she spent the next few years living in such destinations as Tenerife, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy and Switzerland. I asked her if she could speak the European languages and she rattled off French, German, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. “I don’t have a flair for languages,” she replied, “I work hard at it.”
Now with much experience in the travel industry she took a position with the large Kuoni travel group and was sent to Bangkok to look for tourism opportunities in Thailand. That was 26 years ago, and Gillian has seen many changes since then. “I went looking for new places and discovered Cha-am. It did not even have a hotel!” Things have changed.
Her next move was to Sri Lanka and then Antigua in the West Indies. I asked if she had applied for these destinations or whether she was just seconded there. “Who’s going to turn down Antigua?” said Gillian with a broad smile. She enjoyed that destination so much that she stayed on and ran the Dian Bay Resort until she went on holidays and the hotel burned down!
By now, her family had moved to Scotland, and Gillian thought she would join them. “I wanted to settle and put down some roots.” She spent the next five years in Forfar on the east coast of Scotland. “I didn’t like it really,” she said.
Towards the end of her time there, she answered an advertisement for a secretary needed in a five star hotel in Dubai. After four months she was flown out for an interview, and then heard nothing until six months later, when she was told she had the job. She fled cold wet Scotland for the hot sandy deserts of the Middle East.
During her seven years in Dubai she was able to reacquaint herself with horse riding, and met a mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry who was also into horses and polo in particular. So much was polo his passion, they went to New Zealand to get married. “They’re polo mad there,” said Gillian.
I think it was more than just Gillian’s husband and assorted EnZedders who were polo mad. Gillian was as well, and they emigrated to New Zealand where they had a house with 40 acres and 14 horses. It was here that she became proficient at erecting the post and rail fencing!
Unfortunately, her husband was offered a job he could not refuse in Rayong, so Gillian was left to dispose of the horses, bridles and bits, and join her husband here. “This is the first time I haven’t had a job since I was 14. It’s a bit difficult. You just can’t do nothing.”
This was then time for her to join the PILC where she edited the newsletter, and followed on to take on the presidency this year. She is proud of her group. “We are truly international with 26 nationalities in our 140 people. Women can work together, you know. It is possible to have two women in one kitchen.”
It was at that point I had asked her what she would do if she were in charge of the world, and her concept of putting more women at the top. Thinking that perhaps I had a rampant women’s libber in front of me, I asked that question too. “Am I a women’s libber? No. I don’t do things because I am a woman. I’ve been very independent and I’ve never been discriminated against for being a woman!”
So saying, I ended the interview with this supremely confident woman. She has no need for raging feminism, she will achieve whatever she wants with a flash of the eyes, a smile and reasoned argument. Gillian Thom will be a very capable president for PILC and I wish her all the luck in the world (not that she really needs it)!

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