OLD ETONIAN Jock Hargrave Scott-Park, who was a farmer at Gartocharn, on Loch Lomondside and a ground-breaking nutritionist, conservationist and piper, has died aged 84.

The son of Glasgow-based consultant radiologist, Stanley Douglas Scott-Park, and Meta Hargrave Wilson, he was born in Rutherglen.

He was educated at Glasgow Academy and Hurst Grange School for Boys, in Stirling, before going on to Eton College. He read agriculture at St John's College Cambridge, and it was during these years that he met many people who were to become life-long friends. It was also at this time that he discovered many interests which he pursued throughout his life.

Rowing was his greatest passion and he was introduced to it at Eton. While at Eton he had become Captain of Sailing and it was there, too, that he first met Raymond Johnstone, head of the Glasgow investment company, Murray Johnstone, who later became a neighbour at Gartocharn and chairman of the Forestry Commission.

Jock was a keen piper and, as Pipe Major, he once led the Cambridge University pipe band on an Armistice Day parade. He was also a keen cyclist, and was often seen out on his grandfather's vintage Penny Farthing bicycle.

In the tribute given by him at the funeral service, conducted by the Rev Liz O'Ryan, in St Mungo's Scottish Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, his son, David, told the congregation about this.

He said there was the time when the late Tom Weir, the television personality who was a neighbour in Gartocharn, brought down to the farm a couple of his mountaineering pals who were introduced to the Penny Farthing.

They just happened to be the New Zealander Edmund Hillary, and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest. "I think they feared more for their lives on this machine than on any mountain," said David.

Mr Scott-Park spent 63 years at Portnellan Farm, where he met Myrtle, who came to ask him if he had a piece of land where she could graze her horse. Jock secured not just a wife but a life long partner and farm secretary all at once. They were married in 1956.

Portnellan had been a mixed farm in 1952 with a bit of everything - cereals, cows, pigs, sheep and hens. Mr Scott-Park was always keen to move ahead of the times and Portnellan was one of the first farms on Loch Lomondside to move from hay to silage, a wise move in the West of Scotland.

Twenty years later, he decided that the future of Portnellan lay in dairying and a milking parlour, cubicles and slurry store were constructed and the family continued dairying until five years ago.

Scott-Park had a long standing interest in diet and nutrition and completed a paper on the subject a few days prior to his death. This interest in diet and nutrition influenced the way he farmed.

Ammonium nitrate fertiliser was replaced with calcium nitrate and pesticides and herbicides ceased to be used. By this stage, Portnellan was well on the way to being organic and went on to become certified as such in 2001.

He was involved in the Gartocharn Community Council for 40 years and was its chairman for nearly 30 years. Farming was his life, however, and, amidst other roles, he sat on the legal and technical committee of NFU Scotland.

Other work in the community included The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, of which he was a board member; the Health Promotion Group of the Glasgow and Clyde Health Board; and St Mungo's Church, where he was vestry member.

His coffin was piped from St Mungo's and later to his graveside in Vale of Leven Cemetery by his son, David Scott-Park, and grandsons, Chris Scott-Park and Mark Bushby.

Scott-Park, who was predeceased by his wife, Myrtle and son, Mark, is survived by his son, David and daughter, Elizabeth Bushby, and their spouses, Freda Scott-Park and Charles Bushby and by his grandchildren.