Sir Malcolm Pasley

He was also patron of the Paisley Family Society, the organisation established in 1988 by Duncan Paisley of Westerlea, landowner and businessman in Moffat, with the objective of bringing together all those with the

surname of Paisley, a family with twelfth-century Renfrewshire origins.

Sir Malcolm, genealogically a leading figure in the Paisley family, was sixth in line from James Paisley of Craig, a Dumfriesshire landowner near Langholm, born around 1695. Sir Malcolm sprang from James's younger son Thomas, a career naval officer who reached the rank of admiral, and whose part in the ''Glorious First of June'' defeat of the French fleet in 1794 merited a baronetcy from a grateful George III.

Thomas's surname had been the more usual Paisley, but family tradition maintains that he later omitted the ''i'' as a punningly respectful tribute to his commander Nelson's loss of an eye. Thomas himself lost a leg during action in the ''Glorious First'', and in a later engagement, an eye, too.

The family of Paisley possesses no chief - though chiefship is an issue actively being pursued - and Sir Malcolm agreed to become patron of the Paisley Family Society in 1988. Then in a surprise move in 1994, Sir Malcolm surrendered any claim to lead the growing Paisley family, signing away any claims in favour of his kinsman Duncan Paisley of Westerlea. ''I support the Paisley Family Society in its endeavours to seek recognition as an honourable community in Scotland'' he wrote, acknowledging that Westerlea was ''representer of the senior line of our name''. The fact was that Sir Malcolm had been presented with clear

evidence which pointed to the Westerlea claim as being the senior. However he remained on friendly terms with the society, staying in contact and sending a message of familial greeting to clan members attending the 2001 gathering. The Paisley following now numbers nearly 1000 members in five branches across the globe, with an annual journal, a museum and twice-annual gatherings.

Editor of numerous works concerning Kafka, it was Sir Malcolm's intention to devote his retirement to writing the biography of his collateral ancestor Sir Charles Pasley, the so-called ''father'' of the Royal Engineers.

The anchor on Sir Malcolm's coat of arms maintains the naval link, while the crest on the arms includes mention of ''a human leg erect, couped at the knee'', which serves as a grisly memory of his ancestor's painful war wounds.

Seafaring and scholarship ran in Pasley's family. His father Sir Rodney, fourth baronet, was headmaster of Birmingham Central Grammar School and editor of ancestor Sir Thomas Pasley's Sea Journals. Born in Rajkot, India, where his father was teaching, Malcolm was educated at Sherborne as well as Trinity College, Oxford, serving in the Royal Navy for two years from 1944.

Appointed lecturer at Magdalen in 1950, and a fellow eight years later, he became fascinated by Franz Kafka and his works, and rapidly became a leading figure in

the editing of his texts. In a heroic journey across Europe in early 1957, Pasley managed to obtain the Kafka papers from a Zurich bank vault, then carefully drove them in his small car from Switzerland

to Oxford.

He was recognised with a honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen in 1980, membership of the German Academy of Language and Literature in 1983 and in 1987 the Austrian Cross of Honour for Learning and the Arts.

He succeeded to the title in 1982, and is survived by his wife Virginia, Lady Pasley and sons Robert (who succeeds as sixth baronet) and Humphrey.

Sir John Malcolm

Sabine Pasley MA FBA

Hon DPhil, fifth baronet

of Craig, Dumfriesshire; born April 5, 1926, died March 4, 2004.