Alistair Young, of Denhead Farm, Monikie, has died aged 94.
He was born at Newton of Affleck in 1928 and was schooled at Monikie primary.
He went on to Morgan Academy in Dundee but he left at the age of 13 to aid the Second World War effort.
The youngest of six boys and two girls, farming was his calling when horses, binders and threshing mills were still part of the farming scene.
His father Thomas could trace his heritage to Skerrington Mains in Kilmarnock in the late 1800s and moved east to take the tenancy at Newton of Affleck around 1910.
Serving a two-year term at Lochton Farm, Crail, in his late teens, Alistair then for a while farmed Newton and next door Denhead with brother Martin.
He met his future wife Helen Ramsay at a South Angus Young Farmers’ dance in Marryat Hall, Dundee, and then settled down at Denhead in 1951 in a farmhouse with no electric or telephone and flagstone floors.
Enterprises over the years included cattle, sheep, potatoes, turnips and cereals though this was scaled back in the early 1970s when he reverted to farming single-handed with all the perils and hard work that entailed.
He remained an active farmer until 2004 thereafter relying on cooperation with his nephew, farming next door, to witness another 18 harvests and the continued careful management of the soils at Denhead.
Alistair was an active church elder serving Monikie Church for more than 20 years, holding positions of treasurer and session clerk. He was also a keen indoor and outdoor bowler in his spare time.
He is survived by five children, 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
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