Colourful Career Of Duke Of Hamilton

Northern Advocate, 22 May 1941, Page 7

Colourful Career Of Duke Of Hamilton

The landing of Rudolf Hess on the estate of the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, at Dungavel. Strathaven, Lanarkshire, and their subsequent interviews, have renewed public interest in the Duke himself —as Marquess of Clydesdale he was a famous figure—and have called to mind again his exploits as a boxer and as an airman, and particularly his remarkable flights over Mount Everest.

The fourtenth duke, he was born in 1903. At Oxford, he distinguished himself in boxing, gaining his “blue.”

Flight Over Everest

His most famous exploit was his flight over Mount Everest. When in 1932, through the generosity of Lady Houston, the organisation was begun, of an expedition to survey the summit of Mount Everest (29,141 feet) from the air, the Marquess of Clydesdale was chosen as chief pilot. Special aeroplanes were taken to India, and in one of them the Marquess rose to 37,000 feet, and remained at that height for 15 minutes. On April 4, 1933, two of the machines, equipped with oxygen apparatus, and with the Marquess and Colonel L. V. S. Blacker in one, and Flight-Lieutenant Mclntyre and Mr. S. R. Bonnett, a cinema-film photographer in the other, made a flight over Everest, skimming the summit by scarcely 100 feet. There was much mist, however, and the photographic results were poor. During the flight one of the oxygen pipes broke, and the fault was not discovered until Bonnett had nearly fainted.

Held Faulty Plug-

On April 20, another attempt was made, and a series of magnificent photographs was secured. There was one desperate moment —the Marquess, when about to rise above the summit, found that an electric plug in the oxygen heater was working loose. Telephoning the critical news to Blacker, he held the plug in its place while managing to keep the aeroplane on its course. Blacker at once passed him a screwdriver, and with this he skilfully got the plug home before any serious effects developed. The Duchess of Hamilton was formerly Lady Elizabeth Percy, daughter of the eighth Duke of Northumberland. Her marriage to the Marquess of Clydesdale in 1937 brought about the union of two families famous for hundreds of years, and recalled the famous clash between their ancestors, Earl Percy and Earl Douglas, described in the ancient border ballad of Chevy Chase.

Actually, there seems to be no historical evidence of the battle, which, according to the ballad, resulted from Percy’s defiant hunting of deer in the domains of Douglas, but it is considered that it probably celebrates an actual encounter.

Premier Earl

The Dukes of Hamilton are descended on the male side from the Earls of Douglas and on the female from the Lords Hamilton. The Duke is the premier peer in the Scottish peerage and head of the House of Douglas, also hereditary Keeper of Holyrood House.

He holds one French title, that of Duke of Chatelherault.

In June last year the Duke of Hamilton was appointed Lord Steward of His Majesty’s household, replacing the Duke of Buccleuch, brother of the Duchess of Gloucester.