Arthur Houston

Born: December 22, 1929; Died: August 18, 2014

Arthur Houston, who has died aged 84, was a Glasgow lawyer by career but was best-known around Scotland as a captain in the Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) and an activist on behalf of the West of Scotland sailing community. He was a former flag officer and rear commodore of the historic Clyde Cruising Club (CCC), founded in Rothesay in 1909 and now with its headquarters in the Pentagon Centre on Washington Street, Glasgow.

While active in the CCC, he edited its famous Sailing Directions, once known as the Blue Book, essential pilotage guides for sailors in Scottish waters. He helped take the guides, originally written by hand and sent out annually by mail, into the electronic age, with amendments published swiftly on the club's website. He was proof-reading the latest guides for the website until shortly before his death.

Mr Houston was also a longtime member of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), notably its Scottish branch RYAS, where he sought to ensure that fish farms did not clash with the interests of the sailing community. The RYA, the UK's government body for boating and watersports, honoured him with a Distinguished Services to Boating award last December, presented by the RYA's patron, Anne, the Princess Royal, in London.

Having done his national service in the Royal Navy, he stayed on throughout his working life in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), rising to the rank of captain in its Clyde Division. That made him Captain of HMS Graham - not a ship but a shore-based training facility on Glasgow's Whitefield Road near Ibrox stadium. The building, renamed Graham House, is now used by an army medical unit while the RNR's Glasgow training facility is now called HMS Dalriada, on Birkmyre Road, Govan.

Arthur Douglas Houston was born in Glasgow on December 22, 1929, to John (Jack) Houston, a Glasgow solicitor, and his doctor wife Grizel, and was brought up in Westbourne Gardens off Great Western Road. He attended the Glasgow Academy in Kelvinbridge and later Sedbergh boarding school near Kendal in Cumbria before attending the University of Glasgow and graduating with MA (Hons) in 1949. He started sailing early, on his family's yachts, mostly around the West Coast of Scotland but also on trips to Ireland, Brittany and Norway.

After his national service, he might have stayed on for a full-time Royal Navy career but for the death of his father in 1949. Instead he joined the law firm Moncrieff Warren Paterson & Co, at the time based in Glasgow's West George Street, and rose to become a senior partner.

He was instrumental in guiding the old family firm into a merger with McGrigor Donald to become one of the largest law firms in Scotland under the name McGrigor Donald & Moncrieff. (After his retirement, it became known as McGrigors and has since merged with the London-based international law firm Pinsent Masons).

He worked closely with the Law Society of Scotland, often dealing with cases of criticised solicitors. In the mid-1950s, he married Betsy Mowat of Park Circus, daughter of a surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

As a Glasgow-based lawyer, he was involved in many high-profile cases, often winning through with his sound reason, common sense and determination. Given his love of sailing and the Western Isles, according to his sons, his favourite client was Caledonian MacBrayne, who "received personal prompt service, preferably on site".

In 1975, he was lawyer for the South Korean Samyang Navigation Company which ran into legal problems (involving both English and Scots law) over a ship being built at Greenock. The dispute went all the way to the House of Lords, in a case heard by Lord Kilbrandon, where Houston and Samyang won and the case is now oft-cited.

Along with law and his family, sailing was his great love. He was 21 when he took two friends sailing on his 32-foot yacht affectionately known as Wee Jane. They were (the future Sir) Alastair Dunnett, editor of the Daily Record and later of the Scotsman, and his wife the historical novelist Dorothy (later Lady) Dunnett.

In a log of the voyage, Dorothy described how Houston dived to the seabed without breathing equipment shortly before midnight to straighten the anchor. "The Western Isles, which have seen most things, will probably have to think back a span of years to recollect a skipper squatting on the sand beside his anchor, lifting it so that its shank points towards the lie of the vessel's bow. This scarcely essential but exuberant exploit took place at a depth of a full three fathoms."

His other great love was the volunteer Royal Naval Reserve, where he served throughout his adult life, latterly with the rank of Captain. Fortunately, he served in peacetime, although against the dark clouds of the Cold War, whereas the RNR had served in combat with distinction during both world wars when its volunteers commanded anything from destroyers to submarines. He himself would help with training on land in Glasgow two nights a week, serve at sea on board the minesweeper HMS Clyde at weekends and also for two weeks a year in naval minesweeper practice in the event of war.

Mr Houston retired as a lawyer in 1987, aged 58, due to ill health. His death brought many tributes from "Old Hands" of RNR Clydeside.

Mr Houston was a man of strong faith, and was a member of St. Columba's church near his home in Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, for more than 50 years, many of them as an elder. "He had a zest for life," said his son Graeme. "Whether it was playing golf on Mondays in atrocious wind and rain, reckless mountain biking, skiing, sea kayaking, quadbiking, whitewater rafting, he was up for it - ready with golf club in hand, cycle helmet on, fancy dress, there was never any question that he wasn't coming. Indeed, he was due to be sailing with my brother Neil this weekend."

"He was not a bystander, always involved and contributing," said David. "He was ahead of his time. He discovered the work-life balance before it was invented."

Arthur Houston died at his home in Kilmacolm. His wife Betsy died in 1995. He is survived by their sons David, Neil and Graeme, three daughters- in-law, eight grandchildren - Kirsty, Douglas, Hamish, Catriona, Isobel, Rory, Ellen and Finn - and his sisters Lib and Maysie.

phil davison