From Obituary in the Herald Scotland:

Memorial service for Duke of Buccleuch

Hundreds bade farewell to the Duke of Buccleuch at a moving memorial service yesterday, including former Secretary-General of Nato Lord Robertson, MP Michael Ancram, Lord Steel and actress Joanna Lumley.

Hundreds bade farewell to the Duke of Buccleuch at a moving memorial service yesterday.

The ninth duke died in September aged 83 at his Bowhill House home in the Borders after a short illness.

The service was held at St Giles', Edinburgh, where he was married. Among those who attended were former Secretary-General of Nato Lord Robertson, MP Michael Ancram, Lord Steel and actress Joanna Lumley, a family friend who bought a cottage from the duke.

The service was led by the late duke's son, the tenth Duke of Buccleuch, and Ms Lumley read Sir Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel.

The duke's Drumlanrig Estate in Dumfries and Galloway made headlines across the world in 2003 when a Leonardo da Vinci painting, Madonna with the Yarnwinder, was stolen from the house. The painting has since been recovered and five men face charges over its disappearance.

The duke never saw the painting again as he died exactly one month before police recovered the work.

Ms Lumley told of the generosity of the duke in allowing her to buy a cottage on the Dumfriesshire estate even though it wasn't for sale at the time 10 years ago.

She and her partner Stephen Barlow struck up a friendship with the duke and shared a love of music.

Mr Barlow wrote an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony for the duke.

Botanist David Bellamy, a trustee on the duke's estates for 24 years, also attended. He said: "It was a celebration of a great man's life."

The duke was one of the biggest landowners in Europe with around 280,000 acres, was said to be as rich as the Queen and left an estate of £320m in his will, including the da Vinci.

The majority of his property will now be passed down to his son, 54-year-old Richard, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch.

Born in 1923, the elder son of the eighth duke - whom he succeeded in 1973 - Johnnie Buccleuch was educated at Eton and Oxford.

Following the war, he studied agriculture and forestry and became director of the Buccleuch Estates in 1949.

He married Jane McNeill in 1953 at a wedding at St Giles' attended by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and most of the royal family.

He went on to become a Tory councillor in Roxburghshire and then the MP for North Edinburgh.

In 1978 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle - the highest honour in Scotland.

Published on 13 Dec 2007