STIRLING OF GARDEN, Col Sir James KCVO CBE TD 1931-2024
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He was s of Col Archibald STIRLING OF GARDEN OBE 1885-1947 (who he succ. as) head of that Scots gentry family and (Amelia) Marjory Lily MacLaren 1902-2002 d of Maj William STEWART OF ARDVORLICH 1859-1918 and (Sarah) Lily Mary MACLAREN 1864-1935. He m 1958 Fiona Janetta Sophie b 1937 d of Lt-Col Douglas Alwyn Charles PARKER OBE TD 1911-68 scion of that gentry family f/o Fairlie and Janetta Verona 1911-84 d of Col William Jeffrey LOCKETT DSO 1873-1948 scion of that gentry family of Clonterbrook and Janetta de Vere PAYNTER 1881-1959 scion of that gentry family f/o Boskenna, and had two sons (the eldest Archibald b 1961 succeeds his father as family head. He’s m to a STIRLING of Fairburn with a son and two daus) and two daus.
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E X T R A C T
Sir James Stirling obituary: lord-lieutenant and countryman
Veteran of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who was sent to the Korean War and came under ‘friendly fire’
…When, during a career that included farming, land management and surveying, culminating in 25 years as lord-lieutenant of Stirling, he devoted himself to supporting charities such as the Order of St John, there was undoubtedly a sense that the terrible scenes he had witnessed on Hill 282 [during the Korean war] lay behind that commitment.
After the massacre at Dunblane Primary School in 1996, Stirling was appointed chairman of the trustees for the Dunblane Fund, which had to determine how the many donations that poured in after the attack should be distributed. He said it was one of the most difficult tasks he had carried out, but he would have understood only too well what the parents and survivors had been through.
Stirling always made it clear that his branch of the family was “totally different” from the derring-do Stirlings, who included his cousin David, the founder of the SAS. He was brought up with his sister Lilias on the family estate of Garden, west of Stirling. His father, Archie, had been taken prisoner in the First World War and spent the whole war in captivity, latterly in the Netherlands, where he was interned and allowed to work on a farm, provided he undertook not to escape. Stirling’s mother was Marjorie Stewart of Ardvorlich.
Since Stirling’s father, as a regular soldier, could not afford to live in the main house at Garden, which was rented out, the family lived in a smaller house called Sandyholes, in the village of Arnprior… [His] father died when Stirling was 16, at which age he inherited the estate and took on the management as its joint factor…
…His first job was as a factor on the Dalhousie estate in Angus. At a party, he noted three young women who were doing the waiting, and a year or two later he met one of them again: Fiona Wood-Parker, whose family farmed at Keithick near Coupar, Angus. Her father, an accountant, asked Stirling how much he earned. He was told it was not enough, which prompted him to find another job on the Doune estate near Stirling, which paid £700 a year and won his future father-in-law’s approval. He and Fiona were married in 1958, a union that was to last 66 years. They had four children: Archie, a builder and property developer, who died three years ago; Sophie, who worked in the City; David, who farms at Keithick; and Vicky who runs a travel company. His wife and children survive him.
The family lived at St Colme House in Aberdour, Fife, where Stirling managed the estate of Donibristle, before in 1976 moving back to Garden, which had five tenanted farms on it. He also managed the Keithick estate before handing over to his son…
Sir James Stirling, lord-lieutenant and countryman, was born on September 8, 1930. He died after a chest infection on July 22, 2024, aged 93
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/sir-james-stirling-6rz5jbnxj