Born in Galashiels, the son of mill workers, Mr McPartlin graduated from Edinburgh University and was a solicitor in private practice for 12 years in Linlithgow, Stirling and Glasgow before being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1976.

He was appointed a sheriff in 1983, and sat in Peterhead, Banff, Elgin and Edinburgh before retiring. At the time, he was Scotland’s longest-serving sheriff.

He considered one of his most important cases to be a civil action which arose from a golfer being struck by another golfer’s ball at Buckpool Golf Club, Buckie, Moray. He held liability had been established, and the case attracted attention from around the world.

“For 23 years after that decision, the sheriff clerk used to get requests from courts in the US and Canada asking for copies of that decision,” he recalled in an interview with the Press and Journal at the time of his retirement.

Requiem Mass, to which all are welcome, will be held at 11am on Friday, 28 June, in St Sylvester’s Church, Institution Road, Elgin.