WALLACE Kinloch, who was my election agent when I won the then parliamentary seat of Perth and East Perthshire in 1974 and who died recently at the age of 80, was quite a remarkable man, not only for the dedication, professionalism, and almost military precision which he brought to that campaign, but he was also remarkable for many other things.

His bravery was outstanding during his early career in the Scots Guards and subsequently in the Shanghai Municipal Police. An example of this bravery came in 1939 when he was on patrol in the Shanghai International Settlement and when he came across a large group of Japanese police who had no right to be anywhere near there. He got out of his armoured car and told them to move off.

As he returned to his car

he was shot in the back but, despite this, he was able to swing round and spray the Japanese with a long burst from his Tommy gun, as a result of

which the Japanese admiral of the fleet offshore put a reward on his head.

He was, however, happily smuggled out of Shanghai.

Matters did not rest there, for he proceeded to join the police in Hong Kong, only to be captured as a PoW and interned between 1941 and 1945 in the colony there.

After the war, he rejoined the Hong Kong police, was subsequently transferred to Malaya

as Assistant Superintendent, and thereafter his final police posting was as Commander of the Gambian Police Field Force between 1958 and 1966.

He then went into business in Blairgowrie, but during the months of 1974 devoted his time almost entirely to the SNP.