Death announced of Conveyancing Professor A J McDonald

Alastair (Alexander John) McDonald, former Professor of Conveyancing at the University of Dundee, has died at the age of 99.

Educated prior to the Second World War at Cargilfield, Fettes College and Christ’s College, Cambridge, following his war service Alastair McDonald took his LLB at the University of Edinburgh and qualified as a solicitor in 1949. He practised and lectured in Edinburgh before being appointed to the Chair of Conveyancing at St Andrews in 1955 and becoming a partner in W B Dickie & Sons, Dundee. He was involved in the setting up of Dundee as a separate university in 1967.

His Conveyancing Manual is in its seventh edition, and has been a recommended text for conveyancing on the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice in all universities from its commencement. He also published a Registration of Title Manual to accompany the enactment of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979, and his opinions were compiled and published in 1998.

Professor McDonald retired from the university in 1979 but continued teaching for some years afterwards. He retired as a partner in the firm by then known as Thorntons & Dickies (now Thorntons), but remained as a consultant until the turn of the millennium, and was always highly respected in academic and commercial circles. 

A full appreciation will be published in the Journal.