Alastair joined the Police as an Inspector in 1976 and served mainly in crime formations, including four years with Organised & Serious Crime Bureau, before volunteering for full-time bomb disposal duties in 1988. At that stage he had risen to the rank of Chief Inspector and had served for four years on the Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Cadre.

Alastair was a thoroughly professional Bomb Disposal Officer (BDO) who attended over 300 operational call-outs and defused well over 500 devices. He still holds an unenviable record in EOD for dealing with the most bombs on one call-out - he successfully defused a mixed bag of 64 unstable, unexploded wartime bombs and other ordnance found on the dredger 'Stuyvesant' during an 80-hour period in 1992.

Over the years, he dealt with a huge range of tasks from defusing devices strapped to victims to rendering-safe aircraft bombs and large sea-mines containing 500 pounds of explosives. Even at the worst moments, Alastair maintained a coolness and grace under pressure that was exemplary.

He will also be remembered as an imaginative instructor who always wanted the best for his students. Many Cadre BDOs recall that the first time they came under live fire was on counter terrorist bomb disposal exercises run by Alastair - where the sniper fire written into the exercise did not involve blanks.

On another occasion, one particular police unit had lapsed into the bad habit of picking up detonators found during police operations to interdict fish bombs. Alastair's approach was to insert a detonator into a chicken carcass and detonate it in front of the students. The carcass was shredded into mincemeat in milliseconds and, having got the officers' undivided attention, Alastair gently took them through the correct procedures when dealing with these dangerous items.

He was a man of presence and authority, yet unfailingly polite and considerate to the men who worked for him - and gloriously rude to incompetents and time wasters.

He had a keen interest in animals, as many stray dogs that wandered onto the EOD range could testify. He was never more content than when he could combine his feelings for animals with his hobby of rough shooting. After his retirement he spent much of his time walking the hills of his native Scotland with shotgun and dog. He frequently returned to Hong Kong during his retirement and always visited EOD, maintaining a keen interest in the latest developments in the unit.

He has now quietly walked away from us all into the night.

He is survived by his wife Sheila and their sons Struan and Nairn.

"Now gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter."

The photograph shows Alastair in his bomb suit walking away after having dealt with a suspicious object in San Po Kong in February 1996. A copy of this photograph now hangs in the unit where he spent some of his happiest years and another print has been presented by EOD to his family.

(Sing Tao Daily picture)