Scott, Hamish (James Stuart) – It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Hamish Scott of St. Andrews, New Brunswick, which occurred while he was on vacation with his family in his beloved hometown of St. Andrews, Scotland on Friday, March 12, 2010.

Hamish was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on February 17, 1924 to his parents William and Alice (MacKay). As a young boy, Hamish grew up in St. Andrews where he attended Madras College and excelled in both his studies and in rugby. During the Second World War, he enlisted in the Royal Navy and served with distinction on the HMS Scorpion, which was one of the ships which guarded a secret meeting of Winston Churchill in the North Atlantic. His wartime voyages also took him to the Pacific, where he served in Australia.

Upon the end of the war, he returned to his studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland, where he majored in Geology. This chosen field would prove very auspicious as in 1949, he was asked to participate as a scientist in a pioneering mountain expedition to survey an unexplored region of the Nepalese Himalayas that had been, up to that point, forbidden to westerners. The expedition included two of the most famous mountain climbers in history: H.W. Tilman, the party leader and noted author, and the sherpa Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two individuals to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. During the 1950 expedition, Hamish discovered a number of geological breakthroughs.

After returning to Scotland, Hamish became a proud Science graduate of St. Andrews University, and went on to become a member of the Scottish national rugby team in 1950. Playing at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Rugby stadium on March 18, they went on to defeat England 13-11 in the notable Calcutta Cup match. This would be his only international cap as he would soon thereafter move to Malaya and work for the British Colonial government as a biologist specializing in the fishes of Malaya.

He lived in Malaya for the next ten years, where he married his hometown sweetheart Doreen (Tait) and raised his two daughters. They then moved back to Scotland where he earned a Doctorate in Science at St. Andrews University, which was followed by another foreign posting for the British Colonial Government in Nigeria. He finally settled permanently with his family in New Brunswick in the mid 1960s, where he was employed as a scientist at the Federal Biological Research Station in St. Andrews – a name he obviously was attracted to.

After more than two decades of service to the facility, he retired to enjoy his passions of gardening, traveling, volunteering in the community and spending time with his family and grandchildren.

He is survived by his loving wife Doreen of St. Andrews NB, daughter and son-in-law Elaine and Laurence Peters of Fredericton, daughter and partner Alison Scott and Kevin Pauley of Port Elgin, NB, son Alasdair of Toronto, grandchildren Meghan, Christopher, Daimen, Gavin, Linden, and Calum, great-grandchildren Tait and Ana, along with a brother and sister in St. Andrews, Scotland, and another brother in New Zealand. His funeral will be taking place in Dundee, Scotland on Friday, March 19th.