Born: 23 June, 1927.
Died: 24 June, 2008, aged 81.ALISTAIR Campbell, OBE, was a Perthshire farmer, a pioneer member of the Countryside Commission for Scotland, an expert on agricultural law and rural affairs and active cham
pion for the effective use of land for farming and recreation.
Alistair Bromley Campbell was born in 1927, the younger son of Sir John Campbell, 7th baronet of Aberuchill and Kilbryde. Alistair was destined for a life on the land, unlike his father and his older brother, Colin Campbell, who had both opted for military careers. When attending Tonbridge School he achieved the distinction of being the boy who ploughed up the playing fields with a team of Suffolk Punches so that the school, during the wartime restrictions, could grow its own vegetables. In 1944 he went to live and learn his farming at Ottinge Court Farm, in Ealham, Kent, where he stayed for some three years before moving to Scotland to farm the 500 acres which made up part of his father's estate at Kilbryde, by Dunblane.
In 1952 he married Rosemary Pullar, whose family were originally from Perth and founders of the successful textile dying and dry cleaning firm Pullars of Perth. In 1954, their son Christopher was born followed by daughters Caroline in 1956 and Colina in 1964.
These early years were dedicated to the development of a successful dairy and livestock farming business at Kilbryde. With his farm established, Alistair began to take an interest in wider farming and rural issues, notably through the Scottish NFU, where for six years he was West Perthshire's member of the NFU council and convener of the NFU legal and commercial committee. At that point he became involved in a working party which led to the establishment in 1967 of the Countryside Commission for Scotland, which, at that time, was innovative in raising public awareness of conservation and farming.
He was a pioneer member during the development years of the commission in Scotland and as vice-chairman was influential in developing its role in land management for public enjoyment, access, and recreation, and education in the countryside for conservation. In 1976, aged 49, his contribution was recognised with the award of an OBE.
Alistair continued his interest in conservation throughout his life, working for a succession of conservation bodies such as the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, the Scottish Conservation Projects Trust and, latterly, Action Environment Limited.
His wide-ranging experience in agriculture and rural affairs, was further recognised in 1981, when he was invited by the then secretary of state for Scotland, George Younger, to become one of the three lay members of the Scottish Land Court, a legal body charged with adjudicating over disputes between landlords and tenants, in agriculture and crofting. This job took him all over Scotland for the next 11 years, where he used his negotiating and arbitrating skills to settle disputes between landlords and tenants often involving crofts in the North-west.
Following his statutory retirement at 65 in June 1992, he continued to work as an independent agriculture consultant. In this role he provided practical advice and valuation services to farmers and landowners and worked as a consultant to ScottishPower, whilst still continuing to farm at Kilbryde. His advice was sought by farmers across Scotland on a wide range of land transactions, ranging from the building of a mobile phone mast to loss of land for a new road or natural gas pipeline. Not least amongst those who benefited from his expertise were a large number of ex-British Coal tenants who he supported and advised in their negotiations to buy their farms.
Widowed in 1995, Alistair carried on this arbitration work well into his seventies as well as continuing with his other long-standing voluntary work including at the Strathcarron Hospice, where he was chairman of the executive committee for several years, organising the Doune and Dunblane Show and working as an active member of St Mary's Church and supporter of St Mary's School, Dunblane, until his full and active life was curtailed by the onset of Parkinson's disease. Alistair Campbell will be remembered as a prodigious and tireless worker for the local community and rural affairs in Scotland.
He is survived by his son and two daughters.
The full article contains 718 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
