John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch

Walter Francis John Montagu Douglas Scott, a.k.a. John Scott, '
9th Duke of Buccleuch & 11th Duke of Queensberry & Earl of Dalkeith, KT, VRD, JP, DL

28 September 1923 – 4 September 2007
A Scottish peer, politician and landowner.
He served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War.
He represented Edinburgh North in the House of Commons for 13 years.
He was educated at Eton.

Walter Francis John Montagu Douglas Scott was best known by his middle name John.
Known as Johnny Dalkeith, from his courtesy title of Earl of Dalkeith
He was the only son of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott 8th Duke of Buccleuch 10th Duke of Queensberry,
& the former Mary Lascelles.
His sister Lady Elizabeth married the 10th Duke of Northumberland, and Lady Caroline wed politician Ian Gilmour.
His paternal aunt was Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester.

In 1942, he joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman, and was commissioned as an officer the following year, serving on destroyers. He continued as a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and the Royal Naval Reserve after the war until 1971. He was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Decoration in 1959. He was appointed Honorary Captain in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1988. He was a Captain of the Royal Company of Archers, Lord President of the Council and Silver Stick for Scotland. He was a member of the Roxburghe Club.

After the war, he studied at Christ Church, Oxford, where he joined the Bullingdon Club. He briefly worked as a merchant banker in the City of London, and then as a director of an insurance company.

As Earl of Dalkeith, he was a Roxburghshire County Councillor from 1958. He contested Edinburgh East in the 1959 general election, losing to the incumbent Labour MP George Willis, but was elected as a Unionist (and latterly Conservative) Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North from a by-election in 1960. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Lord Advocate, William Rankine Milligan, from 1961 to 1962, then briefly as PPS to the Secretary of State for Scotland Jack Maclay from January 1962 to July that year. After Maclay was sacked in Harold Macmillan's Night of the Long Knives, he was PPS to Maclay's successor, Michael Noble, from 1962 to 1964. He defeated a young Robin Cook in the 1970 general election.

He and his wife sustained minor injuries in a car accident at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, on 16 August 1961, but made a full recovery. However, in a hunting accident near Hawick on 20 March 1971, his horse threw him off as it failed to take a drystone dyke, and then fell on him. Dalkeith was left paralysed from the chest down with a fractured spine. He left hospital in early September 1971, and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, and became a notable spokesman for disability organisations. He was the first MP after the Second World War to enter the House of Commons chamber in a wheelchair, where he was greeted by Harold Wilson, who crossed the floor of the chamber to shake his hand, in October 1971.[1]

Dalkeith left the House of Commons in October 1973, as he succeeded to the Dukedom upon his father's death. As a result, he stood down as an MP. However, he remained a member of the House of Lords for the next 25 years, where he spoke particularly on rural, disability and constitutional issues, until the removal of the hereditary peers in the reforms of 1999.

The royal family reportedly wanted Princess Margaret to marry Dalkeith, but she was not interested.[2] On 10 January 1953 he married Jane McNeill at a ceremony at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh attended by the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and most of the royal family.[3] Jane, a leading fashion model for Norman Hartnell, was the only child of John McNeill, QC, and the former Amy Yvonne Maynard.[4] Together, they were the parents of four children:[5]

1) Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch (born 14 February 1954), who married Lady Elizabeth Marion Frances Kerr, daughter of 12th Marquess of Lothian in 1981.[5]

2) Lady Charlotte-Anne Montagu Douglas Scott (born 9 January 1956), who married Comte Bernard de Castellane in 1991.[5]

3) Lord John Montagu Douglas Scott (born 9 August 1957), who married Berrin Torolsan in 1990.[5]

4) Lord Damian Torquil Francis Charles Montagu Douglas Scott (born 8 October 1970), who married Elisabeth Powis in 2001.[5]

The Duke was in the headlines in October 2003 when the painting Madonna with the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle. It was found in October 2007, one month after the Duke's death.[6]

The Duke died after a short illness at one of his three homes, Bowhill House, in Selkirkshire, Scottish Borders, in the early hours of 4 September 2007. He was survived by his wife, daughter, and three sons (ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren). The Duke was buried on 11 September 2007 among the ruins of Melrose Abbey, next to his parents. His cousin the Duke of Gloucester was among the 2,500 guests who attended the burial ceremony.

Through his daughter, Lady Charlotte-Anne, he was a grandfather of Comte Boniface Louis Albert Charles de Castellane (born 1993), Rose Jane Michèle Elisabeth de Castellane (born 19 June 1996), and Pierre John Boniface de Castellane (born 11 April 2003).

Through his youngest son, Lord Damian, he was a grandfather of Alexander Edward James Montagu Douglas Scott (born 13 February 2002), Georgia Lucy Alice Montagu Douglas Scott (born 11 August 2006), and Orlando John Sebastian Montagu Douglas Scott (born 27 March 2009).[5]

Chairmanships:

   RADAR (1977–1993); President (1993–2007)

   Buccleuch Heritage Trust (1985–2007)

   Living Landscape Trust (1985–2007)

   Association of Lord-Lieutenants (1990–2007)

   President of The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (1969)

   St Andrew's Ambulance Association (1972–2007)

   Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institute (1973–2007)

   Scottish National Institution for the War Blinded (1973–2007)

   Royal Blind Asylum and School (1976)

   Galloway Cattle Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1976)

   East of England Agricultural Society (1976)

   Commonwealth Forestry Association (1979–1999)

   Vice President of The Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children

   President of The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club (1982)

   Royal Scottish Forestry Society (1994–1996)

   Honorary President Animal Diseases Research Association (1973–1995)

   Honorary President of the South of Scotland Car Club Ltd (1951–2007)

Honours:

   Knight of the Order of the Thistle (1978); Chancellor (1992–2007)

   Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Decoration (1959)

   Justice of the Peace for the commission area of Roxburgh (1975)

   Deputy Lieutenant of Selkirkshire (1955)

   Deputy Lieutenant of Roxburghshire (1962)

   Deputy Lieutenant of Dumfriesshire (1974)

   Lord-Lieutenant of Roxburghshire (1974–1975)

   Lord-Lieutenant of Selkirk (1975)

   Lord Lieutenant of Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale (1975–1998)

   Bledisloe Gold Medal (1992)

   Chief of Clan Scott (1973–2007)

Honorary military appointments:

   Captain, Royal Naval Reserve (1988–2007)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Scott,_9th_Duke_of_Buccleuch'''
References:
"The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry". The Independent. 6 September 2007. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
Laguerre, Andre (10 October 1955). "Clue to a Princess's Choice". Life. pp. 135–144.
Scotsman obituary http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/laird-royal-...
"Jane, Duchess of Buccleuch: Model turned politician's wife whose efforts helped pave the way for disabled MPs". The Independent. 26 April 2011. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022.
"Buccleuch, Duke of (S, 1663)". cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
Cramb, Auslan (8 February 2013). "Former lawyer sues duke for £4.2m 'reward' over stolen Leonardo". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 February 2013.

External links

   Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Duke of Buccleuch

   News report, The Scotsman, 5 September 2007

   Obituary[dead link], The Daily Telegraph, 5 September 2007

   Obituary, The Times, 5 September 2007

   Obituary, The Guardian, 6 September 2007

   Obituary, The Independent, 6 September 2007

   Obituary, Buccleuch Group

   Buccleuch Estates website

   Photograph of Duke in 1992

   BBC article on theft of da Vinci painting

   Profile, burkes-peerage.net; accessed 20 April 2016. 

_______________________________________________________________

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