Tragedy as industry giant dies aged 76

One of the founding partners of the well-known agency Slater, Hogg and Howison has died at the age of 76.

It was in 1975 that Roy Slater joined co-founders to establish the agency, which 11 years later was sold to TSB for £9m.

He went on to found Roy Slater Estate Agents, which would become the largest independent agency in the west of Scotland.

He was a lifelong member of the Liberal party and then the Liberal Democrats, and served as a councillor on the old Eastwood Council between 1967 and 1974 - at the time, he was the youngest councillor in Scotland.

His friend of more than 50 years, former Scottish Labour Party chairman Bob Thomson, described Slater in the Scottish media as “kind, generous and considerate to everyone he worked and socialised with, a true gentlemen who will be missed by his many friends.”

At his funeral service on Tuesday, STV News special correspondent Bernard Ponsonby led tributes, saying: “He was a man of fastidious courtesy and impeccable manners, a man who never allowed his prominent status or comfortable lifestyle to separate him from an army of friends who warmed to his modest, warm and unassuming nature.”

Slater Hogg & Howison is now the largest estate and letting agent in Scotland, with over 25 branches from South Ayrshire to Kirkcaldy. 

Estate Agent Today sends its condolences to Roy Slater’s family and friends.