Angus and Perthshire farming stalwart Fred Welsh dies at 89

Fred Welsh, an industrious Angus farmer, has died aged 89.

Born in December 1923, he started his working life on the family farm at Westside Marycoulter.

He spent his life working in agriculture and married Isobella Jane Gardener, known as Jean, in 1953. The couple had five children, all at Westside Farm.

As a young man working the fields Mr Welsh saw RAF Spitfires dogfighting in the skies with German planes, watching as the Spitfires downed a German aircraft which crashed near the farm.

In the 1960s he moved to Brenziehill, Arbuthnott, to start farming on his own where he took pride bearing cattle and sheep and was a familiar face in the auction marts in the area, selling mainly at Laurencekirk.

In the 1970s, he moved to Dryloch Farm in Alyth in partnership with his two sons, growing mainly malting barley on a more arable enterprise.

Mr Welsh retired from farming in the mid-1980s, settling down at Abbey Gardens in Coupar Angus where he continued to take an interest in farming and looked on in amazement at new combine harvesters that could harvest in one day the land he used to farm.

Mr Welsh died after a short stay at Balhousie nursing home on February 6.