LIEUTENANT Colonel Alistair Joseph Edward Cranstoun of that Ilk and of

Corehouse, Lanark, chief of the clan Cranstoun, died on Wednesday at his

home.

In his military and diplomatic career during and after the Second

World War he played a key role both in arranging the Italian army

surrender in 1943 (when Mussolini was replaced by Marshal Badoglio) and

in the final withdrawal of occupying forces when Austria became an

independent nation. He was 79 and had been suffering from Alzheimer's

Disease.

After his retiral in 1959 Lieutenant Colonel Cranstoun became a

deputy-lieutenant of Lanarkshire. He was deeply involved in local

affairs and became an area commissioner for the Scout movement, turned

over part of his land to the National Wildlife Trust, and also devoted

his life to the promotion of Italian interests in Scotland.

Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs Cranstoun had no family, so the new chief

of the clan will be their nephew, Mr David Lockhart, a senior

agricultural lecturer at the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of

Agriculture, who lives at Aberlady, East Lothian.