Disinherited: Colourful aristocrat cuts his only son out of his £3m will
AS one of Europe’s most colourful aristocrats, he flaunted convention to the last.
In life, he shunned castles for a croft, and swapped high society for a remote Scottish island.
In death, Count Robin de la LanneMirrlees has also defied tradition – by disinheriting his only son, Patrick de la Lanne.
The peer, who died two months ago aged 87, left an estate worth an estimated £3 million, including two Hebridean islands, a French villa, a flat in Paris, a Sicilian vineyard and a 500-year-old Banffshire castle.
Yet a family feud dating back decades means that the count, a former Queen’s Herald whose glamorous early life helped inspire the character of James Bond, refused to leave anything to his son. Instead, he chose to leave almost his entire estate to his teenage grandson.
The newly published will of Count Robin, formally known as Robin Ian Evelyn Stuart Grinnell-Milne, Comte de la Lanne-Mirrlees, titular Prince of Coronata-Gualtieri, shines a light on the wealth of the man who lived out his final years on the island of Great Bernera – and also on the fractured nature of his family life.
Last night, one crofter said the count had disinherited his son because of ‘bad blood’. He added: ‘It’s well-known they had a difficult and estranged relationship which goes back for many, many, years.
‘The count never really explained why – but it was something to do with his intimate family relationships. It was never completely healed, although there was a degree of reconciliation in his latter years.’
The count’s will was registered in the Books of the Lords of Council and Session after his June 23 death.
The document shows that the count’s son – now the 50-year-old mayor of a town in Germany – did not receive a penny. Instead, the bulk of the estate passed to his youngest grandchild.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that the count had gifted the 250-acre Outer Hebridean island of Little Bernera to the National Trust for Scotland. But neighbouring Great Bernera and his other properties have been left to his grandson, 16-year-old Cyran de la Lanne.
Listing the items in the remainder of his estate, the count confirmed they included: ‘My villa at Le Touquet in France, my land at Hagedet in Southern France, Inchdrewer Castle, Banff, Scotland, my farm in Sicily, the Island of Great Bernera and the property known as Bernera Lodge and property at Five Kirkibost, Bernera, together with the rights in any crofts there.’
He left instructions that the estate is to be held in trust until his grandson reaches the age of 25.
Count Robin bought the 7,000-acre Great Bernera in 1962 and had a warm relationship with its 350 inhabitants. Before moving into a care home, he lived there simply, in a croft without even a telephone.
The count was born in 1925 to decorated RAF pilot Captain Duncan Grennell-Milne and French Countess Frances de la Lanne. But his parents divorced and he later took on the surname of his mother’s new husband, Scots war hero Major General William Mirrlees.
The count became a captain in the Royal Artillery, serving in India during the Second World War.
He attended the Queen’s Coronation in the ceremonial role of Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms. Elements of his life were used by James Bond author and family friend Ian Fleming, whom the count helped with background work for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond’s cover as genealogist Sir Hilary Bray was based on the count.
Like 007, the count was a ladies’ man. But his only marriage was to a nurse who helped him back to health following a bout of illness. It lasted a week and he later said the move was ‘out of gratitude, really’.
It was a long-term relationship with German Duchess Margarethe of Wurttemberg that provided the count with his only son Patrick. He was born in San Francisco in 1962 and raised by a foster mother in Lower Saxony, which includes Delmenhorst, where he is now mayor.
Last week, the count’s disinherited son was on holiday with his wife Irene and family and could not be contacted for comment.
But John Gillies, legal assistant at Stornoway-based Ken MacDonald and Co solicitors, said the mayor and his son had recently visited.
He added: ‘Patrick and the grandson were over a week ago. We’re waiting to get instructions from them. We only saw them very briefly.
‘I know that Cyran and his father came over to visit Count Robin at the end of last year, but I don’t know the particular reason why the inheritance missed a generation.’
Although the bulk of the count’s estate has passed to his grandson, his two grand-daughters – law student Marie Charlotte, 23, and Berenice, 21 – were bequeathed a flat in Rue de la Pompe in Paris.