Personal Tribute to Tom by Scott Forster.

 RIP  my dear friend and flatmate of 10 years  Thomas Leonard  the retired  Bayesian Statistician, unorthodox Christian,  author, historian, poet, writer, activist,  compulsive chess player, scrabble champion and larger than life personality. We discussed and debated (and at times disagreed strongly and heatedly) many questions from  psychology to religion to politics, philosophy to history etc.

As an activist he was part of and stood with the LGBTQ+ community, for the disabled and neurodiverse and for those with mental health distress and all feeding into the fact that he was a tireless enemy of eugenics such as when we spoke at the (what turned out to be a whitewash) 2019 UCL Eugenics Inquiry   . He supported BLM, indigenous rights, migrant rights and more. He supported Palestinian liberation and was a relentless critic of Israel and Zionism. He totally condemned the Tories and their austerity/ neo-liberalism. 

He argued against Christian conservatism and fundamentalism and fought for a more progressive vision of Christianity drawing on the Epistle of James arguing that "Faith without deeds is dead" and the basic message of Jesus was living an ethical life and social justice. In this he was inspired by Rev Peter Macdonald (1958-2020) the Minister at Broughton St Mary's Parish Church, Edinburgh. He eventually found a home at Augustine Church, Edinburgh.

He acted on that principle. He left two churches in disgust due to their homophobia and transphobia, and left one due in part to one of their members Islamophobia. He also condemned certain Edinburgh activists for their tolerance of transphobia and other oppressiveness within their ranks. 

There are many lessons we can learn from his life and he set an example in ways to follow.

*He fought for justice in society.

*He told the truth even when it was unpopular whether that was within statistics, in churches etc.

*He refused to allow history to be re-written to skirt over failures of organisations.

*He was a relentless critic of eugenics, of Israel/Zionism, of the Tories/Neo-liberalism, of homophobia and Transphobia.

* He called for society to change completely to benefit disabled and neurodiverse people.

*He called for the unity of the LGBTQ+ community and for intersectionality.

His passing is a deep shock and leaves a void.