Roman Catholic Cardinal. The eldest of two children born to a poor and devout Roman Catholic family, Thomas Joseph Winning was the son of an Irish immigrant from County Donegal who first worked as a coal-miner then served in the Great War and was then employed in the steel industry after fifteen years of unemployment. On losing his job, his father invested in machinery for making boiled sweets which he sold around the houses in the district as a way of bringing in money for his family. Despite their poverty, the Winnings were well-known for their charitable work. His father was a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and his mother made a pot of soup every day for the needy. Thomas attended St. Patrick's Primary at Shieldmuir, Craigneuk, and served as an altar boy and chorister. He wanted to be a scientist after getting a chemistry set at the age of twelve but eventually switched to languages. Speaking fluent Italian and Latin, while at Our Lady's High School of Motherwell, he expressed the desire to become a priest and entered St. Peter's Seminary in Bearsden. Furthering his studies at St. Mary's College in Blairs, Aberdeen, and St. Peter's College in Cardross, Glasgow, he was sent to Rome from where he earned a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a doctorate in canon law from the Sacred Roman Rota. Ordained priest on December 18, 1948 in Rome, back in Scotland he was named assistant parish priest in the parishes of St. Aloysius in Chapelhall, St. Mary's in Hamilton and at Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral in Motherwell. Secretary of the diocese of Motherwell between 1956 and 1961, Father Winning served as chaplain to the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception in Bothwell, spiritual director at the Pontifical Scots College in Rome, parish priest of Saint Luke's at Motherwell, official of Motherwell's diocesan tribunal, episcopal vicar for marriage in Motherwell's diocese and as first president and official of the newly established Scottish National Tribunal in Glasgow. Pope Paul VI elected him bishop of the titular see of Lugmad and appointed him auxiliary for the archdiocese of Glasgow on October 22, 1971, receiving his episcopal consecration on the following November 30 at the metropolitan cathedral of St. Andrew. Vicar general of the archdiocese of Glasgow from 1971 until 1974 and parish priest of Our Holy Redeemer parish in Clydebank, he was promoted to the metropolitan see of Glasgow on April 23, 1974. President of the Bishop's Conference of Scotland between 1985 and 2001, he was named fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland, knight commander of the Holy Sepulcher and grand prior of the Scottish Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. Delegate of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and to the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, Pope John Paul II created him cardinal priest in the consistory of November 26, 1994 with the title of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. The Cardinal succumbed to a heart attack early on Sunday morning on June 17, 2001 in Glasgow. He had just finished breakfast when his housekeeper of thirty years, Isobel McInnes, found him unconscious on his bedroom floor. He had been discharged from a Glasgow hospital less than 48 hours prior his death after suffering a heart attack on June 8. The second heart attack in ten days proved fatal. Found unconscious at nine in the morning, he was pronounced dead at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Victoria Infirmary at 9.55 am. His lying in state, held at Eyre Hall, the archdiocese of Glasgow's head office, saw the participation of thousands. Honorary firemaster of the Strathclyde Fire Brigade, a helmet of the brigade was placed at the foot of his coffin. Having been a lifelong Celtic Football Club fan, tucked in his cassock inside the coffin was his ticket from Celtic's 3-0 cup final victory in May. Winning was dressed in white and gold vestments and a mitre commemorating the Holy Year 2000. A large gold Crucifix presented to him when he became archbishop of Glasgow in 1974, was placed around his neck while his hands were clasped in prayer, holding a set of wooden rosary beads. A gold ring given to him by Pope John Paul II graced his hands. He also wore a pair of red socks which he only had worn once when he became a cardinal in 1994, despite being a part of his attire. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor was the main celebrant at his funeral mass, which saw the participation of three other cardinals, five archbishops, twenty bishops and three hundred priests. Following the mass, Glasgow's first residential cardinal since the Reformation was laid to rest in the cathedral crypt along three of his predecessors as ordinaries of Glasgow and near his friend and auxiliary bishop, Monsignor Charles McDonald Renfrew who died in office in February 1992.