Born: 25 May, 1916.
Died: 16 September, 2008, in Haddington, East Lothian, aged 92 ELIZABETH, Duchess of Hamilton was the eldest daughter of the 8th Duke of Northumberland. Brought up in the splendour of Alnwick Castle with
her sister and four brothers, two of whom would become dukes of Northumberland, she had a somewhat sheltered early life. Their mother, who was born Helen Gordon-Lennox, was a daughter of the Duke of Gordon and she arranged for a governess to tutor Elizabeth and her younger sister, Diana, who would later marry the Duke of Sutherland. The two girls were particularly close to each other, but, sadly, their father died from appendicitis when Elizabeth was 13. Some five years later Helen Northumberland decided to broaden her daughters' education by taking them on a world tour which included China.
On 12 May, 1937, during the Coronation of King George VI, Elizabeth was one of the maids-of-honour to his wife, Queen Elizabeth. Not long after that, in the same year, she was married to Douglas, Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale in Saint Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. The wedding gave rise to a great deal of public interest; a marriage of a Percy to a Douglas was a dramatic event as their families had been deadly enemies in the Middle Ages.
Early on in her marriage, she lived at Dungavel House in Lanarkshire and during the Second World War, after her husband became Duke of Hamilton in 1940, they went to live at Milburn Tower, when he was promoted to the post of station commander at RAF Turnhouse. This residence was south of the aerodrome, slightly to the west of Edinburgh.
On 11 May, 1941, before flying south in a Hurricane fighter aircraft, her husband showed her photographs of the German prisoner he had just interviewed in Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow. He told her that if anything happened to him on his journey south to see the prime minister, he believed the prisoner was indeed Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy.
The Duchess's husband achieved the record of being the only person to be appointed lord high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland four times in the 20th century and she assisted him with his duties. Her husband was also hereditary keeper of Holyrood Palace and she redecorated and modernised the hereditary keeper's rooms with the help of John Fowler.
She had moved with her husband and family to Lennoxlove, close to Haddington, in about 1947, the inspiration for buying Lennoxlove before it came on the market coming entirely from her.
She had experienced a sixth sense that the Baird family might wish to sell. There she and her husband brought up a family of five sons. Her husband, who had been the 14th Duke of Hamilton, died in 1973.
Before that she had founded the Lamp of Lothian charity in 1967 and through her powerful personality and unique determination, persuaded many others to join her in raising the funds required to restore St Mary's Church in Haddington, beside the River Tyne.
Across the road from the church, she helped raise funds to restore the old mill, the granary and the community centre. Further conservation work was completed to Haddington House and the gardens, which became a park.
An ecumenical approach to religious services had an important role at St Mary's and in her life. She insisted on seeing the architectural plans through to a successful conclusion, and the project won a significant European architectural heritage award.
She was appointed a deputy lieutenant for East Lothian, serving from 1984-89 and received an OBE for her public services to the charity in 1988. The Queen Mother had been the patron and in 2007 the Queen and Prince Philip visited the Lamp of Lothian to celebrate the charity's first 40 years.
St Mary's Church and Haddington House as well as the other buildings around Poldrate Mill, became a focal centre for the community, and every year since there has been a concert season, attracting musicians from far and wide including Cleo Laine and Johnnie Dankworth, George Hamilton IV and the late Yehudi Menuhin.
The Duchess chaired the governors of the Yehudi Menuhin School for musicians for some 20 years from 1969-89.
In view of her long-standing support for the arts it was appropriate that she and her husband should have been painted by the Austrian painter, Kokoschka.
She published a collection of poetry entitled By Lamplight with the Reverend Charles Robertson and wrote an unpublished book about Jane Welsh Carlyle, wife of Thomas Carlyle, who lived in Haddington.
Her last official engagement, in October 2007, was at Lennoxlove, when she unveiled the commemorative representation of The Black Douglas by the painter and renowned Scottish folk singer Ronnie Browne of the Corries. Even though she was a Percy, she said she did not mind carrying out this task, as it was part of Scotland's story.
Her passing represents the end of an era for her immediate family in Scotland. She was also, at the age of 92, the last survivor of her four brothers and sister. Her brother George, Duke of Northumberland, was killed in action with the Grenadier Guards just before Dunkirk in 1940, and her brother, Hughie, Duke of Northumberland, who chaired a government commission into foot-and-mouth disease, died in 1988.
She is survived by four of her five sons, by seven grandsons and by four granddaughters, who will greatly miss her strength of purpose, lively personality and wise counsel.
The full article contains 936 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
