VETERAN HIGHLAND CHIEF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 151, 29 June 1932, Page 12

VETERAN HIGHLAND CHIEF

NINETY-SEVENTH BIRTHDAY WOUNDED AT SEBASTOPOL. Greetings from Macleans the world over have reached that wonderful old soldier, Sir Fitzroy Donald Maclean, the 26th. Chieftain of the Clan, who celebrated hi.s 97th. birthday. He lives at Duart Castle, in the Island of Mull, the historic stronghold of his ancestors, which was built in the. 12th. century. Before Sir Fitzroy was born, the castle had passed out of the hands of the Macleans, but in 1911 he was able to fulfil a vow of his boyhood and buy and restore the anchestral home of hifamily. Following the rebellion of 1745, in which the Macleans espoused the cause of Prince Charles, the castle was lost to the clan, and/ only the bare walls remained. When a boy Sir Fitzroy visited the ruin with his father, and vowed that one day he would restore the broken link of the glories of his name and race. Sir Fitzroy still enjoys good health on his island home and takes the keen est interest in the affairs of the day. His life has been one of adventure. When still in his teens he joined the 13th. Light Dragoons, now the 13th. Hussars, and he received a commission from the Duke of Wellirlgton. He fought in Bulgaria and throughout the Crimean War. Severely wounded at the siege of Sebastopol, he was then given 10 hours to live by th? doctors. Sir Fitzroy missed the charge of the Light Brigade because he was ill at the time. At. one time, he lived at Hyde. Park Terrace, but he gave up his house there a few years ago. lie loves the solitude of his island home, and on his native, heath wears the bon not with three eagle feathers, the emblem of his chieftainship.