Born: 6 September, 1922, in London.
Died: 9 August, 2008, in Edinburgh, aged 85. ARCHIE Elliott might never have survived the war. In the landings at Salerno and the terrible fighting around Monte Cassino in 1944, the young o
fficers of his Scots Guards battalion were all but wiped out. We must be grateful for the good fortune which brought him through unscathed to develop his life to the full.
He combined the academic passion of his professor father with the tough determination of the McCosh steelmakers, which passed to him through his mother. At Broughton Place, the baronial house which they built in the Peeblesshire hills overlooking their own grouse moor, he became an early gardening expert, drilled by his mother at the age of four to remember and repeat the name of every flower in the garden. This enthusiasm carried on to create beautiful gardens, first at Duddingston and then at Morton House.
He came back to Scotland after the war and Cambridge to study for the Faculty of Advocates. I met him first as a genial president of the Speculative Society, and we pursued politics together, at first through the Bow Group. This was an age when there was still political idealism in the air. Archie took up politics because he believed in liberal-conservative principles, not, like many advocates at the time, because it was a necessary step towards judicial preferment. In the election of 1970 which brought Ted Heath into power he stood for Leith and we failed by only 400 votes to wrest it from Labour. Though he would have been an excellent MP he was quite relieved not to have got in. He became somewhat disillusioned when we found that the only way to get votes was to use the high pressure sales technique of the soap powder market.
Meanwhile, Susan had come into his life with her sparkling gaiety and devotion. The deep love of their marriage was extended to Peter and Michael. Their family happiness overflowed in Morton House to the benefit of the many friends whom they entertained there with style and wit.
Archie progressed to judgeship as chairman of the Lands Court and Tribunal. He had always been very interested in political planning issues, so it was the ideal job for him. It also gave him the opportunity, in the adjudication of land rights, to travel, often with Susan, to remote parts of the Scottish Highlands.
In later years he developed, with Susan, a more general passion for archaeological travel, and each winter would find him gazing at the tiling of Persian mosques or keeping a stiff upper lip in a draughty Kazakhstan caravanserai. He had a strong preference for the elegant geometric designs of Muslim architecture and felt uncomfortable with the erotic excesses of Khajurao.
Archie came back to politics in his fifties but at a different level. He had always been interested in the way human societies created their identities through religious, tribal, national and class ties. From this came his book Us and Them. In it he looks at the shared loyalties within diverse groups and societies, in contrast with the sharp divisions between societies which lead to conflict and war. Insiders within a society are outsiders to other societies: "us" and "them". One passage in his book came from his own experience, showing how during the war it was possible quite quickly to transfer the traditions and loyalties of the Scots Guards to drafts of soldiers from Liverpool who initially shared none of the values of the regiment.
It was on the same theme that he published a few years later his own war diary, Esprit de Corps, which took him with his battalion through the Western Desert, Italy and France, with a Military Cross on the way. "Esprit de Corps" is a striking document of war, so much so that he was invited, as a 70-year-old, to lecture to young officers training at Sandhurst on what war was like.
We of his generation will miss one of life's true comrades. He raised up and illuminated everything he did and we were able to enjoy it with him as much as he did. He leaves behind many happy memories.
SIR GERALD ELLIOTI SPENT some years as the lay (Gaelic speaking) agriculture member of the Scottish Land Court under Lord Elliott as chairman. We travelled to many parts of the Highlands and Lowlands on circuit, settling a variety of disputes between landlords, farmers and crofters. When a Sheriff Court was not available for preliminary hearings before the land inspections, we would sit in village halls or other suitable venues. Whatever the venue, Lord Elliott, in his judicial robes cut a commanding figure ensuring the dignity of the proceedings. He was always scrupulously fair with witnesses.
I recall an occasion in Wester Ross when a devout Christian lady asked if she could precede her evidence with a short prayer. Lord Elliott, in his inimitable gracious way, readily agreed she could do so. I recall walking with him the length of Loch Trieg in Inverness-shire in snowy conditions covering the ground where wartime commandos and many other soldiers trained during the war, followed by a welcome plate of soup and bread from the recently widowed farmer in the farmhouse. Lord Elliott took it all in his stride. There were many other occasions too numerous to mention.
Lord Professor, in his elegant eulogy in St Giles, gave an accurate pen picture of the man I, and many others knew so well. Lord Elliott was indeed rare, with a brilliant legal mind who cared deeply about fairness and what was right. Rudeness was not in his nature, as I can testify however provocative the witnesses and I greatly admired his all embracing spirit of decency.
RODERICK MACDONALDA full obituary of Lord Elliott was published on 21 August.
The full article contains 989 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
