Obituary: Angus Macpherson, Scottish civil servant

Angus Macpherson helped develop the government's response to the Aids crisis.

Angus Macpherson, an Oxford graduate who reached the highest echelons of the UK Civil Service and retained close links with his native Isle of Lewis, died at 88 in April. Like many of his generation he was academically gifted but he enjoyed educational opportunities that were otherwise denied to his childhood contemporaries. But his educational journey was shaped by tragedy and war.

He was born in Glasgow, the only child of Dr Eric Macpherson from Greenock and Jane Thomson, a teacher from the village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis.

Spending his formative years in Glasgow, Angus lost his father at the age of six. This saw his mother securing a post on Lewis and moving back to her native village of Tong where Angus received his early education in the local school.

With the onset of the Second World War many male teachers were called up, and the ruling that married or widowed women teachers could not be employed was relaxed. Angus's mother was appointed to a teaching post with Edinburgh Education Authority and he became a pupil at Leith Academy, achieving distinctions in all his school subjects. In 1945, following examination, he was awarded a place at Fettes College and received the next five years of his secondary education there. He had a successful academic career, winning three Governors' prizes and an Open Scholarship in History to Worcester College, Oxford. Before he could enrol at Oxford, Angus was called up for National Service in the Royal Artillery and commissioned as an Artillery officer at just 19. He spent the remainder of his National Service in Belfast, but was seconded to different Artillery schools throughout the country to learn more about gunnery, and teach the subject to Reservists called back to the Army at the time of the Korean War.

After full-time National Service, he served in the Territorial Army for ten years, five years in the Honourable Artillery Company in London, where the Commanding Officer of his Regiment was Edward Heath MP. He would later rub shoulders with Heath when he was Prime Minister and Angus a senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office in the early Seventies.

He studied Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford, under distinguished academics such as Lord Briggs, Lord Bullock and A J P Taylor. He was a keen runner and represented his College in athletics and cross-country.

Angus graduated in 1955 with an honours degree in Modern History. Following a short time as a trainee buyer with the Newcastle firm of Thomas Hedley, later part of Proctor & Gamble, Worcester College continued Angus’s scholarship to allow him to return to Oxford for a further year to prepare for the Civil Service examination. He spent this year in the University's Department of Public Administrative and Social Studies, gaining the Post-Graduate Diploma in Public and Social Administration in 1956.

During this year, Angus met Una Jamieson, another History graduate who was studying for a Post-Graduate Certificate in Social Work. They kept in touch after they left Oxford in 1956, and were married in Peebles in September 1961. Meeting and marrying Una was for Angus by far the most important consequence of his time at Oxford.

Angus entered the Scottish Home Department in October 1956 and served in the Scottish Office from then until he took early retirement in 1987. During his first three years he dealt with Scottish local government and civil law. There followed two years as private secretary to a minister, which entailed regular attendance in the House of Commons. The next four years were spent administering civil defence, during the time of the Cuban missiles crisis. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1972 to be secretary of a committee appointed by Edward Heath, by then Prime Minister, to advise the Government on the preparation of legislation.

When the committee reported two years later, Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and Angus was appointed to the Cabinet's economic secretariat. He became secretary to each of the three main Cabinet committees dealing with the government's economic policies. He was also secretary of the committee on civil emergencies, whose work is now carried out by the Cabinet committee called Cobra.

When he returned to the Scottish Office in 1976 he was put in charge of schools education. His next job was to administer acute medical services, mental health services and addiction, during which he helped to develop the government's response to the HIV/ AIDS crisis.

He enjoyed a full retirement, including enrolling in the Open University to study geology and earth science and graduating as a Bachelor of Science in 1997. He became a member of the Edinburgh Geological Society, of which he was President from 2010-2012.

He served his congregation, Palmerston Place Church, at local and Presbytery level as an Elder. For four years he was Convener of the General Assembly's Central Services Committee.

Singing brought him much pleasure all his life and he sang in several choirs, including the Palmerston Place Church Choir for 15 years. Between 2005 and 2011 he sang in seven successive Royal National Mods with Lothian Gaelic Choir.

Angus maintained close links with his many relatives and friends on Lewis and took great pleasure in visiting them frequently. He was proud of his Lewis heritage and of his fluency in Gaelic, which he had spoken since childhood.

He is survived by Una, his two children, Ranald and Catherine, and four grandchildren, Lucas, Amy, Alice and Milo. Ranald, is an Advocate and Catherine is an Actuary.

DONALD CRICHTON