HISTORIAN Frank Worsdall, a specialist in the history of Glasgow and a

campaigner for the retention of its tenement and architectural heritage,

has died at Leverndale Hospital on the South Side of the city. He was in

his late 60s.

Born in the Midlands but educated in Glasgow when his family moved to

Scotland, Mr Worsdall was a freelance lecturer and tutored in

architectural history at Glasgow School of Art in the 1960s.

He was also an accomplished author and wrote several books such as The

City that Disappeared and The Tenement -- A Way of Life, which won the

Chambers Award for the best non-fiction book of 1977.

His book Victorian City, which was released in 1982, was part of what

observers described as a passionate crusade to stop Glasgow committing

architectural and environmental suicide by destroying some of its finest

buildings.

A highly respected researcher, Mr Worsdall spent much of his time in

the Mitchell Library in Glasgow studying the work of architects such as

Alexander ''Greek'' Thomson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Speaking in 1979, he said the designation for development of areas of

Glasgow such as Laurieston, Townhead, and Cowcaddens gave the local

authority power to undertake the wholesale demolition of much of the

city's finest buildings and the communities that went with them.

Never afraid publicly to criticise the city fathers, he added: ''What

Hitler failed to achieve in the 1940s, Glasgow Corporation cheerfully

carried out in the following decades in the name of progress.''

A frequent contributor to The Herald, he wrote in October 1982,

shortly before Victorian City was published, that the quality of the

city's architecture which had survived destruction remained its most

priceless possession, and attracted more and more tourists who marvelled

at the achievement of our Victorian predecessors.

Mr Worsdall, who lived in Kingsbridge Drive, Rutherglen, was a

bachelor.