A prizewinnning student has been found dead in student halls at St Andrews University, just weeks after leaving one of the country’s top independent schools.
Kelsey Clarke, 18, was discovered in her room in the Agnes Blackadder Hall of Residence on Friday morning.
Kelsey, from Dollar, Clackmannanshire, was a former pupil of Dollar Academy.
It is understood that it was while she was there she began her transgender move.
Staff and students at St Andrews University were informed of her death in an email from university principal Professor Louise Richardson on Monday.
Prof Richardson said: “I am deeply saddened to have to tell you of the tragic death of one of our first-year students, Kelsey Clarke.
“Kelsey was 18-years-old and studying international relations.
“A resident of Agnes Blackadder Hall, she had settled into hall life and had already made good friends in the first few weeks of term”.
Ms Clarke was born in Exeter but moved to Scotland as a young child.
Prof Richardson said: “She was a gifted and prizewinning student as well as being a talented debater.
“She participated in debate competitions at school where she also mentored the junior debaters.
“In St Andrews she continued her passion for debating as a promising new member of our debating society.
“She also had a keen interest in politics and international affairs.”
She continued: “Her family describe Kelsey as unfailingly kind, generous to others, and with a fine sense of humour, qualities which were recognized by the friends and acquaintances she had made in her brief time as a student here.
“I know you will wish to join me in extending our deepest sympathies to Kelsey’s mother Jude, her father Jason, older sister Jen and dear friends Isaac, Amy and Fraser, to whom her loss comes as a heartbreaking shock.
“We are giving her family as much support as we can at this unbearably difficult time.”
Jenny Clarke posted a photo of her sister, taken when she was a baby, on Facebook.
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “Police in Fife were called to the University of St Andrews shortly before 11am on Friday following a report that a woman’s body had been discovered within Agnes Blackadder Hall in North Haugh.
“The death is not being treated as suspicious and a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal.
“The next of kin have been informed.