Neil Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick

Neil Aylmer Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick was later Neil Aylmer Hunter, after becoming the 29th Laird of Hunterston in 1970, a title that goes back to the 12th century. Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick was educated at Eton College and, after serving in World War II, went to Trinity College, Cambridge. He was also educated at the Sorbonne University in Paris. He was a member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen’s Royal Bodyguard for Scotland.

Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick was a keen yachtsman and was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. He competed in the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He finished sixth on the “Stug” Perry-owned 5.5 metre yacht Unique in 1952 and four years later, in the same class, he won a silver medal on another of Perry’s 5.5 metre vessels, Vision. Kennedy-Cochrane-Patrick had crewed for Perry since 1951.

Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick’s daughter-in-law Jasmine, the wife of his son Nigel, was killed in the Harrod’s bombing in December 1983. Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick lived in the Bahamas and died in Andorra in 1994 when he was succeeded as Laird, and leader of the Hunter Clan, by his daughter Pauline.