PANALBA

The death of Scotland's Premier Duke

Roddy Martine 06/15/2010 11:04 AM

ANGUS Hamilton, as he preferred to be known, inherited his dukedoms from his father in 1973, not only becoming the 15th Duke of Hamilton, but the 12th Duke of Brandon. In addition to his dukedoms, he was also the 22nd Earl of Arran, descended from the Regent Arran, 1st Duke of Chatelrehault, a title bestowed upon that individual in 1549 by Henry II of France.

Through his mother Lady Elizabeth Percy, a daughter of the 8th Duke of Northumberland, Angus was closely related to the dukes of Richmond & Gordon, Sutherland and Portland. Through cousin marriages he was also descended from the earls of Argyll, Atholl and Huntly, and, through Charles II, from Mary Queen of Scots herself, making him probably one of the most blue-blooded Scotsmen of all time.

As senior descendant of the ancient lords of Abernethy, he was called upon to carry the Crown of Scotland to the opening of the re-convened Scottish Parliament in which his ancestors had played such an immensely significant part until its departure to London in 1707. A shy and academically intelligent individual, Angus never relished the public duties he was so frequently called upon to fulfil, but nonetheless addressed them with a firm sense of duty. He was the Hereditary Keeper of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, but his happiest times were dedicated to his design and engineering projects, in perfecting a variety of sturdy off-road vehicles for third-world usage, motor racing, at which he excelled, and to flying his beloved Bristol Bulldog biplane. In 1991, he wrote a fine biography of his ancestor - Mary Queen of Scots - The Crucial Years (Mainstream Publishing).

The history of the Hamilton family, coupled with that of the House of Douglas, is, next to that of the Royal House of Stewart, the dynastic history of Scotland. Virtually every generation of his ancestors is to be found at the fore-front of Scottish politics, and perhaps that is why Angus preferred to stand aside as an astute, and often justifiably cynical, observer.

Born in the family home at Dungavel in Strathclyde (Hamilton Palace, the family's former home nearby had to be abandoned in 1925 when it started to sink into the underlying coal mines which had de-stabilised its foundations), Angus's childhood, however, was largely spent in North Berwick, in East Lothian, where his father had purchased a substantial house by the sea to accommodate him and his wife and five sons. Angus was educated at Eton, where he joined the Air Cadets, and, in 1956, he enlisted in the Oxford University Air Training Corps when he entered that university to study engineering.

His love of flying served him well. On graduating, he joined the Royal Air Force, following a family tradition in which all four of his uncles and his father had become Squadron Leaders. As chief pilot, his father, had flown a cockpit biplane over Mount Everest. Angus, for his part, flew a series of reconnaissance missions for the British forces fighting against communist insurgents in Malaya.

In 1972, he married Sara Jane Scott, known as Sally, and together they refurbished an East Lothian farm in which he and his family of two sons and two daughters lived for the following thirty five years. On inheriting the dukedoms in 1973, Angus also inherited Lennoxlove, the nearby castle which his father had purchased in 1947. Previously owned by the Maitland and Baird families, Lennoxlove, with its surrounding 460 acres of parkland and gardens, became the Hamilton's ducal seat and, in addition to being open to the public, is today available for conferences and private rentals.

Angus and Sally separated in 1987, and he was briefly married to Jillian Robertson before meeting his last duchess, Kay Carmichael, whom he married in 1998.Together Angus and Kay shared a great love of animals and music and somehow it seemed that the shy but resourceful Duke had finally found his ideal match.

The heir to the Hamilton titles is Angus's eldest son, Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale, who was born in 1978, and who now becomes Duke of Hamilton & Brandon.