John Aymer Dalrymple

John Aymer Dalrymple traced his ancestry to at least 1429, with one one of his relatives was responsible for the massacre of the Macdonald’s of Glencoe in 1692. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he joined the Scots Guards in 1926 and retired from the Guards in 1953 as an Honorary Colonel. He was also a captain with the Royal Company of Archers. He was appointed an MBE in 1941. Dalrymple was made a JP in 1936, a County Councillor in 1938, and served as Deputy Lieutenant of Wigtownshire in south-west Scotland from 1962-81.

In 1961, he also succeeded his father, an officer and Member of Parliament, as the 13th Earl of Stair. His wife Davina was the daughter of David Bowes-Lyon, the younger brother of Her Majesty the Queen Mother, making Davina a first cousin of the Queen. He owned a local newspaper, was director of TV channel, and also had a seat in the Wigtown County Council. John, Earl of Stair was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1978 and a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). As captain-general of the Royal Company of Archers and Gold Stick of Scotland he acted as the ceremonial Queen’s bodyguard in Scotland 1974-1988. He died at Lochinch Castle.