Calcutta Cup winner Scott dies at age 86

FORMER Scotland rugby internationalist Hamish Scott has died aged 86.

Scott won one cap as a No 8 in Scotland's 13-11 win against England at Murrayfield in 1950.

Born in Edinburgh he was raised in St Andrews and educated at Madras College and St Andrews University where he majored in geology.

During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy on HMS Scorpion, which was one of the ships which guarded a secret meeting of Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the North Atlantic. His wartime voyages also took him to the Pacific, where he served in Australia.

The year before he won his Scotland cap, Scott participated as a scientist in a pioneering expedition to survey an unexplored region of the Nepalese Himalayas. Among his fellow explorers was Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who, four years later, became the first man – alongside Sir Edmund Hillary – to conquer Mount Everest.

Having played his part in a quick-witted performance by the Scottish forwards 60 years ago – the Scots were on the receiving end in the scrummage but were livelier in the loose – Scott emigrated to Malaya and worked for the British colonial government as a scientist.

Further overseas posts saw him work in Nigeria and then Canada, where he finally settled with his family in the town of St Andrews, New Brunswick.