Angus Erskine obituary

My friend Angus Erskine, an academic and a campaigner for social justice, who has died of cancer aged 70, was a key figure in the development of the Social Policy Association in the mid-1980s, and served on its executive committee. He co-edited, with Pete Alcock and Maggie May, textbooks for social policy students, including The Student’s Companion to Social Policy (1997), and was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Social Policy.

Angus began his academic career as a lecturer at Sunderland Polytechnic in 1981, before moving to Edinburgh in 1984, then the Universities of Glasgow (1991) and Stirling (1996), where he became a senior research fellow in the department of applied social science. He had a particular interest in social security, anti-poverty strategy and comparative social policy.

He was never comfortable with the detachment of academic life and sought to link it with the wider community. At Edinburgh, he was engaged in anti-poverty work with the Centre for Employment Initiatives. When Alistair Darling was first elected as an MP in 1987, Angus became his researcher. In 2001, he was appointed to the Social Security Advisory Committee, a position he held for nine years. He was also active in Labour party politics, chairing his local constituency in Edinburgh in the late 1980s.

He was born Angus Webber; his birth father, Robert, died when he was young, and his mother, Mary (nee Iliff) remarried, to David Erskine. David, a Royal Navy officer, after his retirement worked as an estate factor in northern Scotland, and it was here that Angus developed his love for the outdoors. He was educated at Milton Abbey boarding school in Dorset, before studying social administration at the University of Edinburgh.

He then completed a PhD on area-based approaches to urban poverty in the US and UK, during which time he married Sarah Cowie, a solicitor (the marriage ended in divorce in 1981). Subsequently, he met Anne McGaughrin, a community development worker, who was his partner for many years and remained his closest friend and support.

Angus maintained a passion for the outdoors and rural living. He cycled across the US in his 20s, loved watching and studying birds, and greatly enjoyed long days in the Scottish mountains, clad in his tweed cap and carrying his shepherd’s walking stick. After poor health led to his early retirement in 2007 he withdrew from most social engagements, preferring the company of his dog and cats in rural Perthshire, where he also kept bees. However, he never lost his passion for political discussion and reading.

He is survived by his mother and his four sisters.