WHEN WOMEN WENT INTO BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 26, 30 July 1938, Page 27

WHEN WOMEN WENT INTO BATTLE

The days'" when women -went into fettle were recalled when the Court 3f Lord Lyon, King of Arms in Par-

aliment Bouse, Edinburgh, heard ■ the Sival claims by Miss Catriona Louise Maclean, of Ardgour.," Argyllshire, and her cousin, Xdeut.-Commander Henry Hugh Maclean, K.N.K., of Windhover, Hampshire, to- the principal armorial bearings of the Macleans of Ardgour, says "the "Daily-Telegraph and Morning Post" •

The Lord Lyon, Sir Trancis J. Grant,

• presided.

Miss Maclean, who is 19, claims the right to the armorial "bearing matriculated by her iather, who died In 1930. Both Miss Maclean and Commander Maclean are descended from Colonel Alexander Maclean, thirteenth Chief of Ardgour, who died in 1855.

Cross-examined by Mr. Hector McKechnie, advocate for Commander Maclean, Mr. John Cameron, solicitor, Glasgow, said that he had not heard the Gaelic expression for the "Head of the House" applied to a woman. \ A modern example of a female chief, said Mr. Cameron, was Mrs. Macleod of Macleodi He did not know that the resolution appointing Mrs. Macleod of Macleod chief of the society was expressly framed to avoid.-, the question whether she was chief-of the clan. ','.

Mr. McKechnie:" When she recently recorded arms ii* this right she made Bo reference to chieftainship?—No, tout

she made a reference to what is equivalent to chieftainship. • : :' What was that?—Madeod of Macleod.

Is the alleged instance1' of Mrs. Macleod of Macleod the only one you can give as a female chief? —In ancient times the heiress was rushed into marriage, with the result that her husband acted or became chief.

.- Bo youtell us in your, book on Celtic law that when women went into battle they were flogged into the battle by their husbands?—l was not giving an opinion. I was stating what.was said to be an ancient fact.

Do you think clan associations serve a useful purpose?—l think they do socially- . .

Mr. McKechnie: Is it your opinion, as a matter of sentiment, that if one branch of the family goes to England for 100 years they -would lose thjrir claim to chiefship in favour of any branch who have stayed in a clan country?—lt is a question of the -chief against a remote heir male. The principle is that the daughter of the late chief is a truer representative x>f the branch of the Clan Maclean, known as the Macleans of Ardgour, in that she is in the first place the heir of line. She Is the nearest blood. She had the closest connection -with the last chief.

Mr. Cameron agreed that absence from the country .did not disqualify a claimant to chiefsnip. He also agreed that many people had been absent from Scotland for long periods and had been ..received as chiefs. ' -