VISCOUNT Selby, who has died aged 33 in a car accident near Ardfern, between Oban and Lochgilphead, had lived in Argyll all his life and was very much part of the community. Able, intelligent, and well-

educated, his interests ranged from the physically demanding squash, sailing, and travel, to the cerebral chess. A one-time financier, he had latterly been working as a Co-op checkout operator in Tobermory and Oban.

Edward Thomas William Gully succeeded as fifth Viscount Selby on the death of his father, Michael, in 1997. The title was granted William Gully, the barrister who made his name as Speaker of the House of Commons for a decade from 1895. The coat of arms inherited by the fifth Viscount was

created for Speaker Gully, and the heraldic supporters of the shield are charged with the scales of justice on one side

and the portcullis of Westminster on the other. The present viscount could trace his ancestry back to Daniel Gully, an eighteenth-century coffee planter in Jamaica.

Lord Selby was educated at Harrow, the Sorbonne, and the university of Lund in Sweden. It was in Sweden that he met his first wife, Charlotte Brege, by whom he had his seven-year-old son, the Hon Christopher Rolf Thomas Gully.

He married again in May last year, to Sally Payne, and lived on Mull with her and her three children from a previous marriage. On inheriting his title he sat as a cross-bencher in the Lords, but was among those hereditary peers who lost their seats in 1999. A likeable man, he was highly regarded by the local community in Ardfern.

His mother, Mary, Viscountess Selby, lives in the family seat of Ardfern House. He is survived by his wife, his son, his mother, and his sister, Catherine.

Viscount Selby, financier and checkout operator; born September 21, 1967, died January 23, 2001