WHAT A CATCH!
AS ONe of Scotland’s most ancient clans, the Farquharsons have enjoyed some pretty jawdropping moments over the past few hundred years or so.
Clashes with england’s Tudor armies during the 1547 Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. Braemar Castle in Aberdeenshire razed by fire by one of the clan’s marauding chiefs during the 18th century Jacobite rebellion. Violent inter-clan skirmishes over roaming cattle.
More recently, the clan has boasted among its ranks a World War I flying ace, a high Court judge and a senior aide to the Queen. But nothing quite compares to the latest dramatic twist in the family history — the burgeoning romance between former President Barack Obama’s stunning 19-year-old daughter, Malia, and her British beau, rory Farquharson, also 19.
rory, a former head boy of rugby School, was thrust into the limelight when the pair were filmed last weekend in a passionate clinch. They are both studying at harvard University in the U.S., and their lingering embrace — which took place in broad daylight moments before a harvard v Yale football game — has whipped up something of an international media frenzy.
So who is the floppy-haired charmer encircling the former First Daughter in his arms? Just how involved are the pair? And crucially, what do the Obamas think about their daughter’s very public display of affection?
In the past, Barack Obama, has laughed off concerns about the prospect of seeing Malia and her 16-year-old sister, Sasha, starting to date, saying he was ‘pretty relaxed’ about it because of the permanent security detail that surrounds the family. ‘There’s only so much these guys can do,’ he joked during a radio interview last year.
But if he was to hand pick a man worthy of his beautiful, brainy daughter, he could do much worse than rory Farquharson. The teenager was one of the most academically high-achieving pupils at the £12,000-a-term rugby, which was the setting for the 19th-century novel, Tom Brown’s School Days.
his school record is impeccable. As well as being a prefect then head boy, he represented the school at golf and captained the rugby second XV.
he took part in a rugby video played at the World Cup opening ceremony in 2015, in which Prince harry also made an appearance and, the same year, was chosen to read at a service from the school’s Victorian chapel which was broadcast on BBC radio 4’s Sunday Worship programme.
rory, described as ‘quite a catch’ by his school friends, is hugely popular with both boys and girls. One who boarded with him said: ‘Overall, he was a pretty good guy. everyone liked him; he was nice with everyone. There really isn’t anything bad to say about him.’
According to the Cambridge University newspaper, The Tab, which spoke to his former school friends, ‘everyone fancied him’. The paper quotes one female fellow pupil as saying: ‘I always saw potential in him. I was obsessed with him at school.’
While Malia may be able to boast a former world leader for a father, rory’s own pedigree as member of the Farquharson clan, whose motto ‘Fide et Fortitudine’ means ‘faithful and courageous’, is not to be sniffed at. he is the only son of 57-year-old Charles Farquharson, a chief executive and director of an investment fund management group in London, and his wife Catherine, 58, a top accountant.
And while Malia may have grown up in the sumptuous surroundings of The White house and enjoyed the perks of an indoor pool, a helicopter pad and a cinema, rory’s family homes are unlikely to disappoint if she ever crosses the pond to visit.
The family divide their time between a house in North London and a vast £1.6 million six-bedroom detached house with electric gates in the Suffolk market town of Woodbridge, near Ipswich.
rory’s great-grandfather was one of the founding members of the royal Flying Corps who earned honours during World War I.
his late great uncle Sir Donald Farquharson was one of the most outstanding criminal barristers of his generation and a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1989 until 1995.
More recently, rory’s second cousin, Andrew Farquharson, served as the Queen’s Assistant Master of the household at Buckingham Palace, in charge of organising food and drink at events ranging from state banquets to summer picnics at Balmoral.
he was key to persuading her Majesty to buy her annual 1,411 Christmas puddings, given as gifts to palace staff, from Tesco.
The Queen was so impressed by his work that she made him a member of her own order of chivalry, the royal Victorian Order, before he was poached by Prince Charles to become Deputy Master of the household at Clarence.
Mr Farquharson is now household Controller at Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland and one of key film locations for the harry Potter films.
By comparison to her boyfriend’s impeccable reputation, Malia Obama has gained notoriety as something of a ‘wild child’. Despite the heavily protected environment in which both she and her sister, Sasha, spent their formative years, both appear to have been given a relatively generous amount of freedom by their doting, liberal-minded parents.
In August 2016, Malia made headlines after being photographed puffing on what appeared to be a cannabis joint at a music festival in Chicago.
She was said to have given her secret service security team the slip at the time of the incident, and her father was said to be ‘furious’ about it.
According to the Boston herald, while on holiday in Martha’s Vineyard with her parents a month later, Malia attended a party which was shut down by the police because of noise complaints and was swiftly whisked away by her security team. From the Obamas’ perspective, then, the arrival of a steady boyfriend — particularly one as refined as rory — could be a welcome development.
The pair certainly appeared to be very keen on each other as they smooched at the football match on Saturday. even at 6ft 1in, Malia, dressed in a yellow puffer jacket, had to reach up to wrap her arms around rory’s neck.
They seemed oblivious to everyone around them — including the security team that will continue to protect her for ten years after the end of her father’s presidency.
Asked about the prospect of there being an Obama in the family, rory’s second cousin, Andrew Farquharson, said: ‘I think that’s a little premature, don’t you think?’
‘I was obsessed with him at school’ The Obamas will welcome him No, not Obama’s beautiful girl, but her British public school beau who’s formidably clever, comes from a rich family connected to royalty and who captivates every woman he meets