Sandy Dunbar

London, England, 1929 - 2012

About MeAlexander (Sandy) Dunbar of Pitgaveny, near Elgin, died 2.2.12 aged 82. After National Service in the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders he was educated at Pembroke College Cambridge. Called to the Bar, he worked as a lawyer for ICI. He moved to Newcastle to start up the North Eastern Association for the Arts, then UK Director for the Gulbenkian Foundation and Director of the Scottish Arts Council for 9 years.

The younger son of Sir Edward Dunbar Bt., he had a lifelong passion for the visual arts and his major career change into the arts was a nationally significant one when he moved in 1963 to Newcastle to form, and later become Director of, the first regional arts association in the UK which was expanded under his tenure to become the biggest in Britain, known as Northern Arts. The template for all the regional arts associations later formed throughout the country was his. In the latter stages of post-war austerity, promotion of the arts did not initially feature highly on the government’s agenda, and the success in achieving this in one of the more depressed areas of the UK gave confidence to expand the concept nationally.

He inherited Pitgaveny from his grandfather’s cousin, James Brander Dunbar (the inspiration for John Buchan’s John McNabb). In his late 20s, his friend Oscar Hahn (nephew of the Gordonstoun founder) bet him £20 that he would not run naked to Pitgaveny from his family home at Duffus. He won the bet; his cousin was impressed and indicated in a tantalising way that he might leave Pitgaveny to him, as to others, and nothing was sure until the old man died in 1969.

He studied agriculture for a year at Edinburgh University before moving to Pitgaveny in 1981, in a new career as a working farmer. He became closely involved with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Moray Society and Art in Healthcare, retaining an involvement with community and arts projects. He was fiercely protective of what he felt was best for the community, arts and the landscape in and around Pitgaveny and nationally.

He loved the outdoors: he was a regular participant for many years in the annual Trevelyan manhunt in the Lake District. He was only the second person to catch all 6 “hares” in one hunt. He ran marathons throughout his 50s and 60s, his first being the inaugural London Marathon in 1981, and was a familiar figure on his bicycle into his 80s.