Bruce
George Ronald Murray, 12th Duke of Atholl OStJ (born 5/6 April 1960), is a
South African-born hereditary peer in the Peerage of Scotland and Chief of Clan
Murray.As Duke of Atholl, he has the right to raise Europe's only legal private
army, the Atholl Highlanders, a unique privilege granted to his family by Queen
Victoria after visiting Blair Atholl in 1844.
The elder
son of John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl, and Margaret Yvonne née Leach, now
styled the Dowager Duchess of Atholl, graduated from Jeppe High School for Boys
Johannesburg in 1979. He was educated at Saasveld Forestry College before
serving his two years' National Service with the South African Infantry Corps.
He is currently a volunteer member of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, holding
the rank of lieutenant. Previously he managed a tea plantation, but then ran a
signage business producing signs for commercial buildings.He was commissioned
into the Atholl Highlanders in 2000, being appointed as lieutenant colonel. Upon
the death of his father on 15 May 2012, he succeeded to all his father's
titles, becoming the 12th Duke of Atholl.
The Duke
first married on 4 February 1984, in Johannesburg, to Lynne Elizabeth Andrew
(born Johannesburg, 7 June 1963), daughter of Nicholas George Andrew of
Bedfordview, South Africa (born Brighton, East Sussex, June 1939) and wife
Evelyn Donne de Villiers, and they divorced in 2003. Together they had three
children, two sons and one daughter:
Michael
Bruce John Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine (born Louis Trichardt, 5 March
1985)
Lord David
Nicholas George Murray (born Louis Trichardt, 31 January 1986)
Lady Nicole
Murray (born Duiwelskloof, 11 July 1987); married to Peter Piek
He married
secondly Charmaine Myrna du Toit in 2009, without issue.
Obituaries
Obituary: John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl, retired
South African surveyor who inherited one of Scotland’s most ancient titles
Born: 19
January, 1929, in Johannesburg. Died: 15 May, 2012, near Haenertsburg, South
Africa, aged
By The
Newsroom
19th May 2012,
1:00am
ALTHOUGH of
distant Scots origin, John Murray was a retired South African land surveyor in
his mid-60s when he was informed he had inherited one of Scotland’s most
ancient titles, Duke of Atholl. That also made him, overnight, chief of the
Clan Murray and Colonel-in-Chief of Europe’s only legal private army, the
Atholl Highlanders infantry regiment, as well as giving him umpteen other
courtesy titles within the Scottish peerage, from Balquhidder to Glenalmond.
His son Bruce, also very much a South African, suddenly became Marquess of
Tullibardine, the Perthshire area now perhaps best known for its single malt
distillery.
Until John
Murray took over his new titles in 1996, he had only rarely had a dram and
never owned a kilt. Throughout his life, he had thought little, if at all, of
the fact that he was a distant (third) cousin of Iain Murray, the tenth Duke of
Atholl and chief of Clan Murray who lived in the 13th-century Blair Castle,
Perthshire, with its 120,000-acre estate. The South African surveyor knew of
the distant relationship and had visited the castle once, in 1994, but the
distant family connection was never a factor in his life until the tenth Duke
passed away in 1996.
Even after
being told he had inherited the historic titles, the 11th Duke continued to
live in quiet retirement in a South African mountain village, preferring the
South African sun to the damp of Scottish castles. He did, however, visit
Scotland once a year to carry out his ceremonial duties.
These
included inspecting the annual parade of the Atholl Highlanders, made up of 85
local men and officers, at the family’s historic seat, Blair Castle, before
presiding over the traditional Blair Atholl Highland Games in the nearby
village.
In full
Highland dress, and with his wife, the Duchess Peggy, by his side, he did so
every year to the delight of the locals until ill health forced him to miss
last year’s gathering. This year’s parade and gathering will go ahead next
weekend as planned, with the castle’s flags at half-mast as a sign of respect,
and a memorial service added.
Locals hope
the new, 12th, Duke, John’s son Bruce, will come over from South Africa to fulfil
the traditional role.
Despite all
the titles, and the extent of the Atholl estates, the 11th Duke inherited no
land. The tenth Duke, affectionately and teasingly dubbed “wee Iain” in the
Scottish media because he stood 6’ 5” in his garter-flash stocking soles, had
handed the 120-room castle and estates over to a charitable trust a year before
he died.
Some say
the canny “wee Iain” was miffed that the historic Scottish estate was about to
get into the hands of a distant cousin in South Africa who might see it as “a
commercial concern, not a home”. John Murray, the 11th Duke, insisted he had
never considered turning the estate into a commercial concern but he certainly
never got the chance to and it now belongs to the Blair Charitable Trust, with
Blair Castle a major tourist attraction and relatives of the 10th Duke among
the trustees. It is popular for Highland banquets, balls, weddings and other
functions. “I never harboured any aspirations to inherit the estate,” the 11th
Duke later said.
“I am happy
that the land has gone into a charitable trust. I have a simple lifestyle and
will not make myself ridiculous with a title that does not fit my scene. It
means nothing in South Africa … I have Scottish blood in my veins, but no
Scottish culture … I respect and honour Scotland as the land of my origins, but
I would never want to live there. I am a South African, not a Scotsman. My
heart and my mind are in this country (South Africa).”
With the
castle part of a trust, and open to the public, the popularity of the 11th Duke
and Duchess Peggy was such that they were often invited to stay in private
homes during their visits to Scotland.
To many
Scots historians, and non-Murray clansmen with long memories, the Dukes of
Atholl will forever be remembered most for being among the first large
landowners to launch the Highland Clearances in the 19th century, evicting
crofters and their families in favour of sheep.
It was a
legacy difficult to live down thereafter – many Atholl crofters were forced to
emigrate to the colonies – but the new South African Duke of the 1990s quickly
won over the locals in his historic homeland through his humility and
dedication to his ceremonial role.
He pledged
to maintain Atholl traditions, notably to retain the Atholl Highlanders, mainly
as a tourist attraction. The regiment was founded in 1844 after Queen Victoria,
said to have partaken freely of the local whisky, mixed with a fine French
claret as was her English wont, gave the Duke of the time a unique licence to
form his own private army, one that need not be beholden to the army of Great
Britain.
Although
the Atholl Highlanders are composed mainly of locals from the Blair Atholl
area, the late Duke recently recruited his South African grandson, who held the
titles Master of Tullibardine and Earl of Strathtay and Strathardle, into the
regiment.
John Murray
was born in Johannesburg in 1929, the only child of Major George Murray and
Joan Eastwood. His father died in active service during the Second World War,
when John was 11 years old.
After
gaining a degree in engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg, he got his first job as a land surveyor, the career he would
follow all his life.
In 1956, he
married Margaret “Peggy” Leach, who would become a reflexologist, and they
would go on to have three children, including, in 1960, a baby called Bruce.
Who could
have imagined that a South African baby called Bruce would one day become the
12th Duke of Atholl, chief of the Clan Murray, colonel-in-chief of the Atholl
Highlanders?
“His Grace”
(as protocol required him to be addressed) the 11th Duke of Atholl is survived
by his wife Margaret (“Peggy”), children Bruce, Craig and Jennifer, and seven
grandchildren.
Iain Murray, 10th Duke of Atholl
George Iain
Murray, 10th Duke of Atholl, DL (19 June 1931 – 27 February 1996), known as Wee
Iain, was a Scottish peer and landowner.
Background
and education
Murray was
the only surviving child of Lieutenant-Colonel George Anthony Murray
(1907–1945), who was killed in action in the Second World War, and the
Honourable Angela Pearson (1910–1981), daughter of The 2nd Viscount Cowdray. He
was a great-grandson of Sir George Murray, grandson of the Right Reverend
George Murray, son of the Right Reverend Lord George Murray, second son of The
3rd Duke of Atholl, who in turn was eldest son of renowned Scottish Jacobite
Lord George Murray. Through his American great-grandfather, Brigadier General
Daniel M. Frost of the Confederate States Army, he was a descendant of the
Winthrop family and a distant cousin to former Secretary of State John Kerry.
He attended
both Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, before succeeding the 9th duke, his fourth
cousin twice removed, as 10th Duke of Atholl in 1957.[1] With a height of six
feet, five inches, he was one of the tallest Scottish peers, leading to the
whimsical name of "Wee Iain".
Public life
Atholl
inherited an estate of approximately 120,000 acres (496 km2)—although this was
a decline from the 190,000 acres (769 km2) in the 19th century, it was still a
smaller decline than many other Scottish estates. Under his stewardship, the
estate in and around Blair Castle became a significant area for tourism and
forestry, on which he was an acknowledged expert and spoke many times in the
House of Lords, having been elected a Scottish Representative Peer in 1958.[1]
In addition, he resurrected the Atholl Highlanders, the ceremonial private army
of the dukedom composed of estate workers and family friends, as a tourist
attraction.
He was an
active member of the Conservative Monday Club. He also held several business
appointments, notably as Chairman of BPM Holdings between 1972 and 1983 and of
Westminster Press Group between 1974 and 1996 and as a director of Pearson
Longman between 1975 and 1983. In 1980 he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of
Perth and Kinross.
Personal
life
Atholl died
unmarried in February 1996, aged 64, with the titles passing to his second
cousin, once removed, John Murray, a South African land surveyor.[1] The day
before the death of the 10th Duke, it was announced that he had given Blair
Castle and most of his estates to a charitable trust, thus effectively disinheriting
his heir. The new duke had indicated he had little interest in leaving South
Africa, and though he honoured the land of his origins, said: "I am a
South African, not a Scotsman."
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