My friend Clare Thomson, who has died aged 58 after a cardiac arrest, was a journalist who specialised in writing about the Baltic states – especially Estonia, with which she had familial connections. Later she trained as a primary school teacher and then became a private tutor in English, music and French.
Clare was born in London and grew up in the south-east of the city in Greenwich, before moving to Notting Hill in west London. Her mother, Ingrid (nee Haugas), was a nurse who had escaped from Estonia as a child ahead of the advancing Red Army in 1944 and reached Britain via refugee camps. Her father, John, was a Scottish businessman who worked as finance director of the Brooke Bond tea company.
