Lady-In-Waiting To Queen Mother

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 2

Lady-In-Waiting To Queen Mother

Lady Jean Rankin, one of the two ladies-in-waiting to the Queen Mother during her New Zealand tour, was formerly Lady Jean Dalrymple, a daughter of the 12th Earl of Stair. She is the widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Niall Rankin and the mother of two sons.

Lady Jean Rankin was born on August 15, 1905. Much of her youth was spent at the principal seat of the Earls of Stair, Lochinch Castle at Stranraer, As a girl she worked in Scotland for the League of Mercy, an institution which raised money for hospitals, and she received the League’s Order of Mercy. She is still interested in welfare work of every kind, particularly child welfare. She is a governor of the Thomas Gordon Foundation and of Magdalen Hospital. Before her marriage she worked on the editorial staff of a weekly journal. Lady Jean Rankin’s husband was a distinguished naturalist, photographer and writer on ornithology, who

a travelled widely in the Arctic p- and Antarctic, Africa and the g Far East, and made nature s. and documentary films. Lady >f Jean Rankin accompanied t him on many journeys after ll their marriage in October, sr 1931. e Colonel Rankin, who served n with the Scots Guards in the a Second World War, died in ir April last year. I Lady Jean Rankin was ap--0 pointed a woman of the bed- . chamber to Queen Elizabeth 'I the Queen Mother in 1947, v when the latter was Queen, e and has remained a member b of her household ever since. a In 1950 she was attached to h the suite of Queen Juliana, of the Netherlands, for her state visit to London. She t- has accompanied the Queen i- Mother on various visits over-

seas, among them the 1958 visit to New Zealand. Lady Jean Rankin was created a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1957. The order is awarded for personal services to the royal faniily.