J C H Ireland, doyen of Scottish rugby, born December 10, 1903, died October 24, 1998

''JIMMIE'' Ireland, the legendary doyen of Scottish rugby, has died at the age of 94. He was the last survivor of the famous Triple Crown and Grand Slam XV 1925 (although the soubriquet ''Grand Slam'' had not been thought of at that time). He won every honour that the Scottish game could bestow - 11 caps for Scotland, president of the Glasgow High School FP, president of the Scottish Rugby Union 1950-51, and chairman of the International Rugby Board in the year when Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were admitted as full members of the IRFB, international referee of strict impartiality, and, perhaps the honour of which he was most proud, he was the first member of Glasgow High to be elected a Barbarian, the Holy Grail of any rugby man.

James Cecil Hardin Ireland was a true Glaswegian, born in Sauchiehall Street of a humble family. Rugger players, being what they are, made fun of his initials, JCH, for his playing position was hooker, and his team mates nicknamed him ''Jimmie Cannae Hook''. Educated at Garnetbank Primary School and the Glasgow High School, he quickly became a fanatical proponent of the hooker's art. His parents and two brothers, John and Alan, were intensely proud of his achievements. His mother is quoted as saying that she would have loved to have had a garden, but, instead, she scraped the mud off his rugby boots and placed the soil in her window boxes, claiming that she was the proud possessor of small parts of the Five Nations and several lands beyond.

Like many old rugby hands, he strongly disapproved of the change to professional rugby and the many so-called ''improvements'' of recent times. At many a rugby dinner he had preached that rugby was all about the Three Fs - fitness, fun, and friendship. Lately, he feared that the fun and friendship had been replaced by greed and bitterness. With his puckish sense of humour he often re-told how excessively amateur the game had been in his day. While working in Glasgow, he asked permission of his boss to have Saturday morning off, ''as I am playing for Scotland at Murrayfield''. Reply: ''What? The whole morning?''

While the Scottish team now assembles well before an international match, in Jimmie Ireland's day they reported to the N B hotel for a meagre lunch at noon on the Saturday, changed in the hotel, and were bused to Murrayfield. Jimmie, with his co-High School internationalists John (later Lord) Bannerman and ''Lewdie'' Stewart, took the 11 o'clock train from Queen Street to Waverley. On the way they discussed what chances they had of beating Wales. ''None at all,'' said Jimmie, '''cos we're playing Ireland!'' Changed days.

His professional life, as an accountant, was, first, with Singers Manufacturing Co Ltd at Clydebank and he then served a tour as purser's clerk with the Donaldson Line on the ill-fated ''Athenia''. War service followed, first as a Lieutenant in the RNVR in the OTC at his old school. In 1940 he was commissioned in the Royal Marines and served in Chatham, Orkney, and Ceylon, finishing as a Lieutenant Colonel as the second-in-command of the NCOs school at the RM Depot in Deal.

Post-war he was Dundee manager of William Younger & Co, when he enjoyed golf at Panmure GC, before moving to London, where he was a manager with Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. He was an elder at St Columba's Church of Scotland. He retired in 1986, hoping to settle in Dunoon, but events decreed that his retiral home should be in Polmont.

His buoyant personality ensured that he was the best of company and he was never happier than when being reunited with the Rugby Internationalists Golf Society at its annual match in Scotland. He had attended several internationals at Murrayfield where he was accorded the privilege of sitting next to the patron, the Princess Royal. A significant event was his official opening of the ''1925 Suite'' at Murrayfield, where each member of the 1925 side had a room named after him. At the age of 92 he made an excellent speech.

He married, in 1938, Margaret McLean, whose brother Robbie was friend and athletic competitor of Eric Liddell. She died in 1981. They had no children.