Douglas Kesting

Tributes have been paid to a former well-known Western Isles solicitor who covered a number of high profile cases.

Douglas Kesting died in Peebles earlier this month, just a couple of weeks before his 94th birthday.

During his 35-year career in the Western Isles, he was involved in a legal dispute over the ownership of the island of Taransay, off Harris, which went to the House of Lords. Taransay was later made famous by the BBC reality show, Castaway.

As the Stornoway Trust’s lawyer, he won a controversial headline-making case against a bid to open a pub in Portnaguran in the Point district of Lewis in the mid-1980s.

His daughter Sheilagh said: “Dad was very self disciplined with high values and strong faith.

“He absolutely loved his work, getting out and dealing with people. He really did try to live his life for other people.”

Douglas Kesting’s apprentice and later business partner was Ken Macdonald who now runs his own practice in Lewis.

Mr Macdonald said he admired his deep knowledge of law.

He added: “Douglas was a meticulous and outstanding lawyer. I had great respect for him and we had a very successful partnership together for many years.”

Mr Kesting, the middle child of five, was born in the village of Drumelzier in Pebblesshire, where his father was a Church of Scotland minister. The family went on to Dumbarton and later Ettrickbridge where he would meet Joan, the woman who would later become his wife.

Both families were close friends and the youngsters attended the same schools. Between leaving Selkirk High School and going to war, they became teenage sweethearts.

His brother Hugh was killed during WW2. Douglas - now in his late teens - volunteered for the army and served as a radio operator in India, rising to the rank of Captain.

When hostilities ended, he completed a two-year law degree at Edinburgh University under a fast-track government scheme designed for returning servicemen.

Apart from a couple of years as an assistant in an Inverness legal practice, he spent his working life in the Western Isles.

Arriving in Lewis in 1950, he took over Anderson Macarthur's legal practice within the Old Bank Of Scotland buildings in Stornoway’s South Beach Street.

His workload was eased by his loyal and dedicated secretary, Cathie Macleod, from North Tolsta, Lewis, who died last year.

Mr Kesting married Joan in 1951 and the couple initially lived in an attic flat above the office.

Before their first daughter, Sheilagh - who decades later would become Moderator of the Church of Scotland - was born they had moved to Bayhead, in what was later the main dentist’s surgery for the island. Second child Cathie came along, completing the family which finally settled in Goathill Crescent.

He was group scoutmaster in Stornoway, receiving the Silver Acorn award for his years of committed service, including his instrumental efforts to construct the first new-build Scout hall on Lewis.

Mr Kesting was also an elder in St Columba’s Church of Scotland in Stornoway and its Sunday School superintendent. As choirmaster he organised the annual Christmas service, the result of weeks of endless practice with the children’s choir.

The couple retired to Peebles in the Borders in 1986 where he was involved with the Rotary Club as he was in Lewis and was presented with the Paul Harris award for his exceptional service.

He was also an elder in Peebles Old Parish Church where a service of thanksgiving was held in his memory earlier this month.

Joan died in 2008. Douglas Kesting is survived by daughters Sheilagh and Cathie, grandchildren, Ruari and Daniel, and great-grandson, one-year-old Lindsay.

Obituary: Island solicitor covered high profile cases

29 September 2015

Douglas Kesting