Leonella (Leo) Longmore, teacher, educator, local historian and author. Born: 6 April 1935 in Aberdeen. Died: 4 February 2018 in Inverness, aged 82.
Published in The Scotsman Apr 2018.
Born in Aberdeen, the daughter of Pietro and Linda Ferrari, her parents were Italian immigrants who came to Scotland in the 1920s from the mountain village of Borgo Val di Taro in the Appenines. The family moved to Inverness in 1936 where they established the renowned Ness Café at a time when the café/ice cream shop was a focal point in Scottish society.
Leo identified closely with the town and community of Inverness. but her early years there were marred by the advent of war, when Mussolini declared war on Britain in June 1940. Overnight all Italians were classed as “enemy aliens”. Her father, like other Italian nationals, was interned, while her mother was liable to be relocated to Tomintoul, saved only because she was nursing a terminally ill two year old son.
Leo was educated at Heatherley School in Inverness where she did well academically. Avoiding the expectation of entering the family business, she was the first of her family to go to university, graduating with Honours from Aberdeen in French and Italian in 1958. There she met her future husband, Bryan Longmore, a Law student whom she married in September that year. The couple moved to Toronto in Canada where Leo worked in the Italian Consulate General. They returned to Europe in 1960, first to Parma in Italy where Leo lectured in the European School of Languages, then home to Inverness in 1961, where she taught French and Italian at Inverness Royal Academy. She became Principal Teacher of Modern Languages there, a post she held for 16 years.