‘The old were once very young’ Lady Jean
Obituary: Lady Jean Fforde November 7, 1920, to October 13, 2017
Lady Jean Fforde may not have been born on Arran but it is here, above all places in the world, that she had connections, and where Lady Jean was held in the dearest affection by the people of this island. And the island of Arran was undoubtedly the place closest to her heart.
Lady Jean’s birth, like the birth of her other older siblings Angus and Mary, took place in Edinburgh on November 7, 1920. Her brother Ronald was to be the only baby to have been born in Brodick Castle in hundreds of years in 1912.
However, Jean Sybil Violet Graham, youngest child to the Duke and Duchess of Montrose, spent a considerable part of her formative years growing up on the island. Having homes at both Buchanan Castle, near Drymen, and Brodick Castle, the Montrose family spent approximately six months of each year at each residence – spring and summer at Brodick and autumn and winter at Buchanan.
Most people will think that it must have a very cosseted life. However, in reality from a very early age the routine for Lady Jean was pretty rigorous, certainly by modern standards. From May 15 until September 30 each year, there was compulsory bathing in the sea below the castle, followed by a vigorous drying with a rough towel to bring back circulation to frozen limbs – and neither weather nor sea-conditions made one iota of difference to that routine. No doubt it was ‘character building’ and meant to be ‘good for the health’.
Despite that, much of Lady Jean’s childhood was blighted by illness. Returning from the beach one morning aged just three, she complained of a sore foot. On investigation, the swelling turned out to be the onset of tuberculous osteitis – the bone infection caused by milk from a little Jersey cow brought in to the home farm to provide good milk for the castle nursery, which, unlike the rest of the
home farm herd, had not been tested for TB.
This resulted in an operation to remove abscesses from the offending ankle, having the leg put in irons for months and a year of recuperation at a sanitorium for tuberculosis in Switzerland. Although Lady Jean eventually shook off this terrible illness, in total in her youth it recurred three times and each time meant hospitalisation and long periods of treatment. She also nearly succumbed to blood poisoning after eating a carrot pulled in the garden of her uncle in London, while playing with her Graham cousins, dirt having become lodged in the socket of a tooth pulled at the dentist the day before. During the long recuperation from this, thoughts of summers at Brodick and the sound and smell of the sea were the one constant thing that kept up her spirits in the depths of illness.
And, despite periods of illness, Lady Jean relished those Arran summers, often in the company of her European cousins, Princess Antoinette and Prince Rainier of Monaco. With them, she survived the dangers of playing on the roof of the castle running around the battlements while the unsuspecting adults took afternoon tea. Part of those summers were also spent at Dougarie Lodge during the grouse shooting season, and it was quite an adventure for the cousins to travel over the String Road in pony and trap, having to decant and walk with the nannies up the steepest part coming out of Brodick in order to give the little pony a chance of making it over the top.
As a result of her long periods of illness, Lady Jean was educated by various governesses until the age of 13, when she went to boarding school at Southover Manor in Sussex, after which she spent a spell at finishing school in Lausanne, before as a debutant ‘coming out’ and being duly presented at the Royal Court in the sea- son of 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
It was a very bitter blow to Lady Jean, that due to her former ill-health, she failed the medical to join the Wrens. Instead for a time she did her bit at the forces canteen in the newly built secondary school in Lamlash, as well as helping to organise evacuee children from the city, 12 of whom were billeted at the castle and, in time, to be joined by four officers of the 11th Scottish Commando, then undergoing intensive training on the island.
Although busy running the Voluntary Services on Arran, Lady Jean was keen to do more for the war effort. In 1941, shortly after her 21st birthday bash in the big hall of the Lamlash Secondary School, attended by many of the Commandos who had become firm friends and many of the naval personnel stationed in the bay, a phone call from a friend suggested that Lady Jean might apply for a vitally important job, about which she could give no details, it being hush-hush.
The job turned out to be at Bletchley Park, then involved in breaking the German Enigma code, which played such a vital role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. After a year and a half at Bletchley, Lady Jean successfully applied to became a welfare officer with the Red Cross and, in 1944, was posted to India, where in time she was kept very busy helping with the POWs freed after hellish incarceration at the hands of the Japanese.
Once more, however, ill-health
forced Lady Jean to return to the UK to undergo surgery, after which by way of recuperation came a road trip with an old friend, Elspeth Davidson, in an old Austin 7 across war-ravaged Europe to Monaco and Switzerland.
On her return, resolving to become an interior designer, Lady Jean then enrolled on a weaving course in London, and while there met her future husband, John Fforde, at home on leave from his post as head of the CID in the Palestine Police Force. The romance blossomed and they were married in Brodick Church in October 1947, before setting up home in Palestine, then in a state of civil war between Jew and Arab. Being married to the number one target for the Stern Gang and living under armed guard at all times did not make for a peaceful time. On one occasion, Lady Jean narrowly avoided a sniper’s bullet, although during leisure time there were some interesting trips around the Holy Land, including dining with King Abdullah of Jordan.
Her only son, Charles, was born in November 1948 and raising a baby while living under armed guard for protection was, to say the least, extremely challenging. Postings then followed to Sierra Leone and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where Lady Jean was delighted to see more of her eldest brother, Angus, who had made that part of the world his home.
Alas the marriage was not to endure and Lady Jean returned home to Arran in 1956 as Charles started prep school. There followed what she describes as the ‘worst year of her life’ during which Charles was admitted to the Unit of Tropical Diseases in Edinburgh suffering from a bout of malaria, her mother died just three years after the death of her father, and her divorce came through.
Amid all this, she had to face the difficulties of probate and handing Brodick Castle, complete with all its many family treasures, over to the Treasury in lieu of death duties, which saw the forced sale of much of the south end of the island, including Dippin Lodge, Kilpatrick and the Heights at Lamlash, all with their adjacent kennels, resulting in the break-up of one of Scotland’s finest shooting estates. Criminally and cruelly, the factor appointed by the trustees to oversee this process had all the dogs put down, some 40 or so shot in the head, the vet not even called, including all the pointers which could trace their blood line back for more than 200 years. The heartache of all of that almost unimaginable.
Such a terrible blow would all but finish most people. But it wasn’t for nothing that Lady Jean was descended from tough, re- silient and strong fighting stock … from great Pictish warriors who made life unbearable and untenable for the Roman legions defending the Antonine Wall, or ‘Graham’s Dike’ as it is sometimes known. From the great hero Montrose who faced the scaffold with such dignity, and numerous Graham, Hamilton and Douglas forebears, marquesses, dukes, earls and knights, whose names are synonymous with Scotland’s martial glory and who faced greater challenges and won through to see better days.
Lady Jean faced her time of travail with the greatest fortitude and set about
overseeing the rebuilding of what was left of Arran Estates, including the renovation of Strabane, from its pretty run-down condition into the beautiful home and garden it now is and which was to be her home for 60 years. There were various other ventures of varying success, including turning her beekeeping hobby into a honey-making enterprise to provide honey for the summer visitors and the Strabane kitchen marmalade making which evolved into the opening of a cannery at the estate office, producing among other things venison liver pate. This idea to utilise and market local Arran produce, now so much the prevalent and the accepted norm, was then well ahead of its time.
And, in time, it would be a proud moment when, despite the vicissitudes of the past, in 1969 Lady Jean managed to hand on to Charles a substantial part of his inheritance. She also took every precaution to ensure that she did not fall foul of the inheritance regulations that beset her parents and certain much-treasured items were also passed on to Charles before the event of her own death. The seven-year rule for passing on such inher- itance which applied concerned her a little, and so one well-known and highly respected local GP was duly instructed that if she should die before the seven years had elapsed, she hoped he would facilitate her body being put in the deep freeze and her death not certified until due time had indeed elapsed.
Lady Jean had also set about tracing some of the great pointers previously sold from Isle of Arran kennels and had been able to rebuild the famous bloodline, producing some truly incredible dogs with which she had tremendous success competing at trials all over the UK, holding her own, indeed often beating many of the great professional dog handlers of the day. In time, she become a renowned trials judge and president of both the Pointer Club and Scottish Pointer Club.
Of course, these were not the only organisations Lady Jean became involved in. She was heavily involved with the community life of Arran, being on the various committees of the Ladies Lifeboat Guild, the Arran Musical Festival, Young Farmers and the Scottish Women’s Rural Institute, and was honorary president of most, including the Arran Farmers’ Society and the Red Cross, giving her time unselfishly and unstintingly to speak at countless engagements and open countless fetes, fundraisers and important community events, so often at the very heart of the life of this island. And indeed beyond, especially with the Red Cross, serving at regional and national level. She was also president of the Mission for the Deaf and Dumb in the West of Scotland.
She was also a prolific painter and published author with her two books of memoirs Castles in the Air and Feet on the Ground amalgamated into a complete works Castles and Catastrophes in 2011. It was a book of which she was immensely proud and enjoyed hosting regular book-signing ceremonies at Strabane. The book is dedicated to her son Charles as a reminder that the old were once very young – one of her favourite sayings.
As she passed her landmark, 80th and 90th birthday celebrations – attended of course by her good friends and family, not least her many nieces and nephews, indeed great-nieces and -nephews to whom she was affectionately referred to as ‘Bongo’ – Lady Jean began to scale things back a little. Yet even in the past year as her health significantly deteriorated, two things continued to sum up her service to and love of the people of Arran.
The first, her recent gift of the green at Lamlash to the village, enabling North Ayrshire Council to begin work to save it from erosion by the sea, so that it can continue to be enjoyed by future generations. It is, I think, significant that the work currently taking place is just a few hundred yards from the spot her great forebear, the Good Duchess Anne, had a fine harbour constructed for the benefit of the people of Lamlash some 300 years ago.
The second, her very last public appearance, just three weeks ago at the fundraising day in aid of the Arran Youth Foundations at Strabane. The young people of this island and their development and future prospects were of huge interest of Lady Jean. Her first question to me on every visit to Strabane was concerning what was happening, as she would say, ‘with the young folk’… meaning what was happening at the 13 weekly sessions run by Graeme and Holly, our incredible youth workers, involving around 180 high school-aged youngsters. Her grandson Marcus, too, has, on occasion, been involved with some of their activities while home from school and his recent academic achievements were also a source of much pride to his grandmother. The photograph of Lady Jean that appeared in the Arran Banner showing her surrounded by the AYF youngsters, as by adoring fans, summed it up. Without fail, without prompting every single youngster made a point of personally thanking Lady Jean for allowing them the use of her beautiful gardens to raise funds for AYF. Lady Jean was very much at ease in their company and delighting in seeing them work hard to benefit themselves.
But one incident sums up her brilliant way with people. During the afternoon, one of our youngest members was desperate to give Lady Jean her afternoon tea and to meet her. Alas, as the tea was handed over, Lady Jean was at that very moment deeply engaged in conversation with someone else and unable to do much more than say thank you. But the crestfallen look on wee girl’s face had not gone unnoticed. At the end of the day she was invited into the drawing room for a personal audience with Lady Jean and asked all about where she lived, where she went to school, what she was interested in and hoped to do with her life. One little 12-year-old girl was on cloud nine and will never forget the day she spent at Strabane in the company of Lady Jean.
And that was to be Lady Jean’s last public appearance. Just 12 days later after a brief final illness, thanks to the wonderful, unstinting care of Linda, Donna, Phyllis and the Strabane staff, as well as a late-night visit from the district nurse, she slipped away peacefully at home in her own bed, Charles and Lynne by her side. Although deeply saddened by her death, we are all grateful for that small but rare mercy and also that Lady Jean was spared any further deteriorating or debilitating ill-health.
Characteristically, in preparation for her death, Lady Jean had her headstone created a long time ago by local sculptor Tim Pomeroy and it has lain under a tarpaulin at Strabane now for many, many years. It will be a fine and fitting memorial for a truly remarkable lady.
But Lady Jean’s true memorial will be to live on in the hearts and fond memories of all those over the almost 97 years of her lifespan who had the good fortune to meet and know her, not least her muchloved family and dearest friends. For that we can surely say thanks be to Almighty God.