Sarah Holman
Highland countrywoman and ‘compulsive fund-raiser’ who upheld all that was best about stalking
SARAH HOLMAN, who has died aged 65, stood out among a dwindling number of Highland landowners who hold the view that owning an estate carries with it a duty and responsibility to the land and the local community. She took an active part in the life of the villages of Ilmington in Warwickshire and at Acharacle, Argyll, where she delighted local residents with her eccentricities, and a family trust made land available for a new primary school, a commemorative woodland walk and an extension to the graveyard.
Her own great love was stalking on the family’s Shielbridge estate in Argyll, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. There was nothing she liked better after a morning swim in the icy Atlantic waters, which she did every day summer or winter, than setting out for the high tops, often not returning until late evening.
Where deer were concerned she was a traditionalist and upheld all that was best and grand about stalking. Not for her a short walk, an easy beast in the early morning mist or loosing off a few rounds from an all-terrain vehicle. She was an accomplished stalker and got involved in all aspects of the day, including the gralloching, which she once performed wearing a pair of Marigolds.
The eldest of four daughters of Christopher Boot Holman and his wife Winifred, née Ponsonby, Sarah Charlotte Holman was born in London on July 9 1951. A paternal great grandfather was Jesse Boot, the first Lord Trent and founder of Boots the Chemists. In 1930 he had purchased the 50,000-acre Ardnamurchan Estate (of which Shielbridge formed a part), the most westerly property on mainland Britain, from the father of the art historian Kenneth Clark. The estate comprised a 70-stag deer forest and the south bank of the river Shiel, famous for its early run of sea trout and heavy salmon. Also included was the massive red-sandstone Glenborrodale Castle and Shielbridge House.
Sarah developed diabetes when she was five, but never made a fuss, always telling her family that she was as fit as a fiddle, had her diabetes under control and that her doctor recommended a bottle of red wine a day. This was a prescription she adhered to until this year when she announced that she was giving up wine for Lent, though when asked how she would manage she replied: “I’m drinking whisky instead.” When she was 10 her parents bought Foxcote House, a magnificent 18th-century manor near Shipston-on-stour in Warwickshire, which, until the death of Robert Canning in 1848, had been the seat of the Canning family since the reign of Henry VI. There she was taught to ride and she hunted with the Warwickshire all her life. Sarah was educated at Lawnside in Malvern, the Sorbonne in Paris and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
Despairing of her getting married, when she was 35 her father asked her to take over the running of the Shielbridge estate, by now reduced to 10,000 acres. Moving to the Old Manse at Acharacle, she provided generous entertainment for a shifting cast of guests, the quality of her wines making up in some measure for such dubious delicacies as mushroom and mackerel paté. The sporting artist Ian Macgillivray was a frequent guest; some of his best deer paintings were done on the estate with the Inner Hebrides as a backdrop.
Sarah Holman served as chairman of the Ardnamurchan Deer Management Group and on the executive committee of the Association of Deer Management Groups. Always concerned for animal welfare, she disliked the commercial aspects of stalking and nothing annoyed her more than being told by Scottish Natural Heritage that more deer needed to be culled to make way for yet more trees – although numbers were already at an all-time low.
Sarah Holman served as a Deputy Lieutenant and High Sherriff of Warwickshire as her father and various ancestors had before her. She was always organising events to raise money for her many charities. When her bank manager asked her what her job was she replied: “compulsive fund-raiser”. For the last 20 years of her life she ran the Cheltenham Countryside Race Day, for the Countryside Alliance, raising more than £2 million and bringing attendance numbers up from 6,000 to 20,000. When the committee tried to retire her, giving her a farewell lunch, she refused to take the hint and raised a record amount the next year.
Sarah Holman had no airs and graces and at a smart charity lunch in Gloucestershire last year she invited her carpenter, her gardener, her plumber, her rat catcher and Barry her local taxi driver, and had the most fun of all the tables there.
A woman of forthright views, described by a friend as “95 per cent wonderful and 5 per cent maddening”, Sarah Holman lost her keys, wallet and telephone on a regular basis and was oblivious to any rules that did not suit her. On one occasion, rushing back to Foxcote at high speed late at night, she was pulled over by the police. She explained that she had been playing the part of a tart in the village play and when she saw the lights of a car behind apparently giving chase, she was terrified that she was being pursued by two men in the audience who had been eyeing her up. The policemen were so impressed by her defence that they sent her on her way.
On another occasion, arriving at the airport check-in desk and finding herself barred from her holiday flight since she had an out-of-date passport, she demanded to speak to the pilot.
Sarah Holman was unmarried, explaining that she had had two lovely proposals when she was younger, but had turned them down, as “things were great as they were”. She was adored by her sisters, nephews, nieces and godchildren and welcomed them to the Old Manse each year. She is survived by Corrie, her beloved Norwich terrier.
Sarah Holman, born July 9 1951, died June 7 2017