Angus farmer and former vice-chairman of the Potato Marketing Board George Galloway has died at the age of 91.
For most who knew him, he was associated with his farms at East Balmirmer, Arbroath, and Mains of Ravensby, Carnoustie, but he was in fact born many thousands of miles away in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
His father, who hailed from Stenton, in central Fife, and his mother, whose family home was East Balmirmer, had emigrated to Canada to farm in 1908.
Shortly after their son George, the youngest of three, was born, they decided to return to Britain.
George’s father decided on a complete change of direction and became a minister, eventually settling in Herefordshire.
As he grew up, George became increasingly interested in farming and spent all his holidays at East Balmirmer with his grandmother, Mrs Ireland, who had taken on the tenancy of the farm following the death of her husband.
By the age of 16, George was working on the farm full-time but war intervened and he volunteered early for service.
He served with the Royal Artillery in the Far East from 1942-45 and later commented these had been some of the best of times.
In 1945, he returned to Angus to take up the reins on the farm and, following his grandmother’s death in 1947, was able to take on the tenancy in his own name.
With little capital, he decided keeping pigs would offer the best return and before long he had filled all the space he could find.
By the mid-1960s, he had taken over Crookedriggs piggery, near Barry, and set up a modern unit, which he finally sold in 1992.
In the meantime, he had bought and sold a farm near Keith and then Newton of Kirkbuddo in Angus.
A major step forward came in 1970 when he bought the fertile acres at Mains of Ravensby where he lived in latter years.
He cut his political teeth as chairman of Arbroath branch of NFU Scotland.
He was later to become county chairman and then convener of the national potato committee during the 1970s.
This led to a spell as regional representative and seed committee chairman on the Potato Marketing Board, culminating in his appointment as vice-chairman.
Mr Galloway’s interest in politics led him into membership of the Conservative and Unionist Association and a decade as chairman of the Angus branch.
He met his wife Aileen, an expat Scot, in South Africa in 1959 and they married later that year.
Their son Robert, now the farmer at East Balmirmer, was born soon after, followed by their daughters Rosemary and Heather.
He was predeceased by his wife, Aileen.