LORD Elphinstone, farmer and financier and the eighteenth holder of a

title created in 1509, has died. He was 41.

The only son of the late Rev Andrew Elphinstone and his wife Jean

Hambro, James Elphinstone succeeded to the title on the death in 1975 of

his unmarried uncle who farmed near Meigle in Perthshire.

He was educated at Eton and the Royal Agricultural College,

Cirencester.

Shortly after completing his studies, and as a consequence of

consecutive family deaths, he took over the running of the estate.

Decades earlier, the family had donated the ancestral home, Carberry

Tower, near Musselburgh, to the Church of Scotland.

In 1978, he married Willa, daughter of Major David and Lady Chetwode.

They had one daughter and three sons, of whom Alexander, the eldest,

succeeds to the barony.