On 15 June 1996 Sir Fitzroy MacLean, the Scottish soldier, diplomat, politician and author, died.

Prior to the outbreak of war, MacLean served as a diplomat in Moscow, but it is his service during the war for which he is most noted. MacLean was a founder member of the SAS, serving in North Africa before being sent into occupied Yugoslavia as the British representative to the Communist partisans. After the war he served as an MP, achieving ministerial rank as Undersecretary for War in the mid-1950s.

On the 15 June 1844 Thomas Campbell, the Scottish poet, died. Author of The Pleasures of Hope, Campbell helped found the University of London for students who were excluded from Oxford and Cambridge for religious or financial reasons.

Today's recipe: in soft fruit season this traditional gooseberry fool provides a perfect summery sweet.