Hamish Carlton

He was born in Dundee in 1936, the younger son of the Honourable Sheriff Hugh Carlton and Peggy (Lawson) Carlton.

He attended Harris Academy, Croftinloan and Merchiston Castle School.

In 1954 he joined the Royal Artillery and was commissioned and remained after national service.

He read law at University College Dundee 1957-60 and thereafter qualified with H & HJ Carlton in Dundee. He qualified in English law and began “an exciting but exhausting life as a commercial lawyer”.

“The EMEA legal counsel with Bechtel from 1969-73, he was twice awarded the most air miles travelled on TWA before becoming group legal adviser to Bovis from 1973-75 which included the experience of a Kuwaiti house arrest just before he was about to marry his wife, Ginny, in 1974.

“His next adventure was working in Iran in the days of the Shah, from 1975-79, with Total and the Iranian Oil Company where he organised the escape of 1,300 British and American nationals during the Iranian revolution. Hamish’s book Evacuate!, under ‘nom de plume’ James Lawson, tells more of this story.”

In 1981 he returned to Scotland where he pioneered salmon farming on the west coast and practised as a solicitor, specialising in dispute resolution.

“Ginny, their daughters Debbie, Jenny and Susie, grandchildren Sophie, Calum, Angus and Emily and great-grandchild Eva have given thanks for a life lived absolutely to the full.”