SCOTS CLAN CHIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22226, 28 September 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

SCOTS CLAN CHIEF

GIRL'S CLAIM TO TITLE Members of a Scottish clan are split over the question: Shall a women be our chieftain? stato? the Sunday Express, London. Five years ago Colonel Alexander Hew Mac Lean, chieftain of the MacLeans of Ardgour, Argyllshire, died, leaving no male heir. He was said to have been the best-loved chieftain in the Highlands. He willed his estate of Ardgour to his eldest daughter, Catriona. Catriona was 16 last month. Her mother, the Hon. Mrs. Mac Lean, assumed that Catriona, as her father's eldest daughter, would be chieftain of the Mac Leans of Ardgour. The Clan Association disagreed. They claimed that a female could be chieftain of the clan only when there was 110 suitable male heir in the direct line of succession. Accordingly some months ago the Clan Association welcomed Commander H. H, Mac Lean, of Bursledon, Hampshire, r.s chieftain of the Mac Leans of Ardgour. The Hon. Mrs. Mac Lean strongly opposed this move. Other influential members of the clan support the right of Miss Catriona Mac Lean. Miss Catriona said, when interviewed: " I want to i)e chieftain of the MacLeans of Ardgour, as my father was. Commander H. H. Mac Lean is an Englishman and he has no property whatever in Scotland. I, 011 the other hand, am the direct successor to my father's title, and 1 am heir to the estates of Ardgour. " I see no reason why I should bo passed over in favour of a man who is my fatiier's second cousin. There have been plenty of examples of girls being accepted as chieftains of Scottish clans, and mv mother and 1 are determined to flight any attempt to pass me over. We know that a great many of the members of the association are sympathetic to my claim."