SCOTLAND gains three new knights in today's Birthday Honours List: Sir Bill Brown, former chairman of Scottish Television and the Scottish Arts Council; former Scottish Nuclear chairman Sir James Hann, and leading architect Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith.

Sir Bill Brown retired last month from his post at Scottish Television. He joined the company in 1958 as London sales manager, and was appointed managing director in 1966, becoming ITV's longest-serving chief executive before his appointment as chairman five years ago.

Earlier this year, he stepped down from his role as chairman of the Scottish Arts Council. He has been a director of the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society since 1981, including a five-year spell as chairman, and also serves on the board of Scottish Radio Holdings.

The knighthood for Sir James Hann may be regarded as consolation for last year's decision to remove him from the hierarchy of British Energy after five years' service as chairman of Scottish Nuclear.

Sir James, who is now chairman of the Yorkshire-based Hickson International, was regarded as a highly effective proponent of the case for nuclear power.

Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith was the co-founder of an architects' practice which has been responsible for designing the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, the Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Eden Court Theatre at Inverness, as well as the conservation of important buildings such as Glamis Castle.

The 69-year-old emeritus professor of Heriot-Watt University and chairman of the Scottish Civic Trust was educated at Winchester, Trinity College and Edinburgh College of Art.

Made a CBE in 1976 for his public services, he was president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland from 1971-73, and is a past deputy chairman of the Edinburgh Festival Council.

q Professor Ewan Brown, CBE, has been with Noble Grossart since 1971. The Perth-born merchant banker was a director of the Scottish Transport Group from 1983-88 and also served as a governor of Edinburgh College of Art.

q Professor Don Carruthers, CBE, who retired earlier this year, had been director of roads for the former Strathclyde Regional Council since 1989. Previous to that he had been senior depute, a post he had held from 1982. As well as overseeing a great many road development projects, he was responsible for setting up the technical team responsible for the multi-million pound refurbishment of Glasgow's controversial Kingston Bridge.

q Professor Donald Leach, CBE, has been principal of Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, since 1985. Born in Surrey, he served as a visiting lecturer in mathematics at Dundee Technical College from 1955-64 and later joined Napier College in Edinburgh, where he rose to become assistant principal. He is president of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise.

q Mr James MacFarlane, CBE, has been chairman of Tayside Health Board since 1991. A former director of the Sidlaw Group, he joined the company in 1940 and served it for more than half a century, retiring in 1992. He is a board member of Scottish Enterprise Tayside.

q Professor James Petrie, CBE, is professor of clinical pharmacology and head of the department of medicine and therapeutics at Aberdeen University, and also serves as honorary consultant physician to Grampian Health Board. He is a member of the World Health Organisation's expert advisory panel on national drug policies.

q Mr Brian Stewart, CBE, group chief executive of Scottish and Newcastle plc, the brewing, retail and leisure group, has been honoured for services to brewing. He joined Scottish and Newcastle in 1976 and was appointed corporate development director in 1985, finance director in 1988 and group chief executive in 1991.

q Professor Ian Aitken, OBE, has been director of the Moredun Research Unit in Edinburgh, which has led the way in the development of preventive sheep vaccines, since 1985. A native of Nairn, he is a veterinary graduate of Glasgow University. Professor Aitken, 62, worked in the city for several years, before working in North America for two years. He returned to Liverpool University for a decade before moving back to Scotland to work at Moredun in 1978.

q Mr Archie Bethel, OBE, served as chief executive of Lanarkshire Development Agency from 1991 until April, when he left to become managing director of the manufacturing division of Motherwell Bridge. Educated at Hamilton Academy and Strathclyde University, Mr Bethel, 42, started his career as a design engineer.

q Mr Douglas Brown, OBE, has been the chairman of Scotland's first self-governing NHS trust, in South Ayrshire, since its formation in 1992. Mr Brown, 65, from Lochgelly in Fife, served as a Church of Scotland medical missionary in Nigeria before embarking on a distinguished career in orthopaedic surgery, the bulk of it in Ayrshire.

q Miss Antonia Janette Bunch, OBE, recently retired at the age of 59 as director of the Scottish Science Library of the National Library of Scotland. Born in London, she lectured in library and information science at Strathclyde University before joining the National Library of Scotland in 1987, where she founded the Scottish Science Library.

q Mr Angus Ford, OBE, is chairman of the Scottish Joint Consultants' Committee, responsible for education and standards in medicine and representing the British Medical Association and the medical Royal Colleges, and of the National Medical Advisory Committee which provides clinical advice to the Scottish Office. A consultant neonatal paediatrician at Rutherglen Maternity and Yorkhill Hospitals in Glasgow, Dr Ford is also a former chairman of the Scottish Council of the BMA.

q Major Alastair Hewat, OBE, was chairman of the Tweed River Purification Board and of the Scottish River Purification Boards Association until it was superseded this year by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, of which he is a board member. Major Hewat, of Lilliesleaf, near Melrose, served with the King's Own Scottish Borderers for 18 years.

q Mr Moir Lockhead, OBE, is chief executive of FirstBus, the Aberdeen-based group which is the UK's largest bus operator, boasting 27 subsidiaries, a fleet of 8000 vehicles, 20,000 employees and a stake in Great Western Trains.

q Mr Hugh McIlvanney, OBE, is an award-winning sports journalist with the Observer and brother of author William. McIlvanney, originally from Kilmarnock, specialises in football and boxing and is one of the most respected writers in his field. His long list of honours includes becoming the first foreigner to win the Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism from the Boxing Writers' Association of America, in 1986.

q Professor Hugh Miller, OBE, is a graduate of Aberdeen University who became head of the institution's forestry department in 1984. He has just completed a two-year term as president of the Institute of Chartered Foresters.

q Mrs Barbara Vaughan, OBE, has been chair of the Scottish Community Education Council since 1986. She taught at the former Dundee College of Technology, and is now team leader of public administration, leisure and tourism at Angus College.

q Mrs Jane Boyd, MBE, has been local historian and voluntary custodian of Moffat Museum, Dumfriesshire, since having helped to found it in 1984, and was the town's librarian for 30 years until her retirement in 1979. Mrs Boyd was treasurer to the Moffat Hospital League of Friends and is still active in support of several charities.

q Mr Duncan Brown, MBE, has been associated with the 1st Port Glasgow Boys' Brigade for 45 years, during which time he has taught many young people to play the bagpipes. Mr Brown, 83, who spent the main part of his career in shipbuilding, has remained active in the brigade, acting as caretaker for the institute halls as well as being the institute's secretary and treasurer.

q Mrs Helen Hardie, MBE, has served as an Auxiliary Coastguard at Forth Maritime Rescue sub-Centre in Fife for the past 17 years. She has been dedicated to the role of Operations Room Assistant, frequently turning out at short notice in support of the regular staff. Mrs Hardie was also a founder member of the local branch of the Coastguard Association, which helps serving and retired coastguards and their dependants.

q Dr Neil McDonald, MBE, helped to pioneer life-saving techniques for medical teams on Scottish mountains. Dr MacDonald, 60, a graduate of Edinburgh University who retired as a partner at the Aviemore Medical Practice in April, dedicated much of his life to taking part in rescues in the Cairngorm area. His techniques for treating hypothermia sufferers became widely-accepted within his profession.

q Mr Lachlan Macleod, MBE, is a traffic officer with Strathclyde Police. He has taken part in 13 mercy trips to Romania to take medical and agricultural supplies to hospitals and villages. PC Macleod, 49, formerly from Sleat in Skye, but now living in Dunbartonshire, set up his own charity, Something for Romania, in 1991 and has donated much of his spare time to collecting and transporting hundreds of tons of supplies donated from all over Scotland.

q Mrs Bunty Nicoll, MBE, has been an active volunteer with the Angus group of Riding for the Disabled since 1972 and is also its secretary. She did a sponsored swim to enable one of the group, who suffers from cerebral palsy, to receive treatment at the Peto Institute. In 1975 she started a weekly recreation group in Forfar for people with physical or learning disabilities.

q Mrs Joan Shaw, MBE, has worked for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at the Lochwinnoch Nature Centre since 1978, overseeing its retail enterprise, from a modest start to the present, hugely successful operation with an annual turnover well over #100,000.