BRITAIN'S oldest general has died just over a month after celebrating

his 100th birthday.

General Sir Philip Christison died peacefully at St John's Nursing

Home, Melrose. It was there on November 17, surrounded by three

generations of his family and a small regiment of guests, that he

watched Army bands play on the lawn and helicopters fly past in his

honour.

The funeral will be held next Wednesday at Holy Trinity Church,

Melrose, where the general had sung in the choir and worshipped for many

years. In addition to his distinguished military career Sir Philip was a

former Oxford rugby blue, National Mod performer, and accomplished

clarsach player.

Sir Philip was a fourth baronet but one of his grandfathers was a

Borders shepherd. He returned to those roots when he retired from the

Army and ran a fruit farm near Melrose with his wife, Betty, a daughter

of the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney.

His career began as a subaltern in the Cameron Highlanders in 1914

when he broke off studying medicine at Oxford to join up. He won an MC

for gallantry at Loos.

As a divisional commander in Burma his units were the first to stem

the Japanese advance in the Arakan and turn the tide towards the

eventual British victory. As Commander-in-Chief Allied Land Forces in

South-east Asia he accepted the surrender of all Japanese forces at

Singapore in 1945.

Sir Philip was highly regarded in Japan partly because he returned the

sword of the surrendering Japanese general to the officer's widow a few

years ago.

Before his retirement Sir Philip was Commander-in-Chief Scottish

Command and Governor of Edinburgh Castle. Afterwards he devoted his

considerable energies to being chairman or president of nearly 60

organisations ranging from the Scottish Conservative Party to the

Clarsach Society.

Sir Philip was a distinguished ornithologist and military historian

and his book on Bannockburn has been adopted by the National Trust as

the official handbook for visitors to the battlefield.