McGRIGOR, Sir James Angus Rhoderick, 6th Baronet (1949-2025)
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Obit in Times online of 22 July 2025
Sir Jamie McGrigor obituary: tartan champion and former Tory MSP
Minor aristocrat who was thrust into politics after being recruited at the nightclub Annabel’s and represented the Highlands & Islands at Holyrood, dies aged 75
Jamie McGrigor, a suave and likeable minor aristocrat, was quietly farming his 3,500-acre estate in Argyll when he found himself chosen as the Conservative candidate for the Western Isles constituency at the 1997 general election, the result of cavorting in a London nightclub. “It’s true. I was asked to stand for selection after a night at Annabel’s,” he confessed to the Sunday Telegraph magazine.
…The Western Isles has never been Conservative but McGrigor, who moonlighted as a folk singer in the mould of the late Rory McEwen, was unbowed. He gained at least one vote by helping an island farmer to calve his cow, explaining that doing so went down better with the electorate than his background. “I don’t push the Eton or baronet thing,” he added.
…Despite polling a mere 1,071 votes, he acquired a taste for campaigning and in 1999 enough constituents cast their votes his party’s way to enable him to sit as a Highlands & Islands regional list MSP in the reconvened Scottish parliament.
…He was a popular figure, showing a genuine and heartfelt patrician care for his constituents and for his country. His performing skills were in demand at party conferences, with recitals and stand-up comedy routines that continued into the small hours with lines such as: “If you want the hope and glory, you’re better off with Tory.” He was also among a group of MSPs who appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe offering a lighthearted look at Scottish politics.
…James Angus Rhoderick Neil McGrigor was born in London in 1949, the eldest of four children of Captain Sir Charles Edward McGrigor, 5th Bt, who by the end of the war was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Gloucester, and Mary (née Edmonstone), a historian and herself the child of a baronet; his siblings were Lorna, Kirstie and Charles. The McGrigor baronetcy, of Campden Hill, Middlesex, was created in 1831 for James McGrigor, who served as surgeon-general to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular campaign. McGrigor succeeded in the title in 2007.
In 1953 young Jamie was among the bride’s attendants when thousands of people turned out at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, for the wedding of David Montgomery, son of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, and Mary Connell. He was educated at Cladich School in Argyll before moving south to Sunningdale School, Berkshire, and Eton College.
…In 1987 he married Caroline Roboh, an actress and theatre director, with whom he had two daughters, Sibylla and Sarah, who survive him. The marriage was dissolved and in 1997 he married Emma Fellowes who also survives him with their four children: Alexander, who succeeds in the baronetcy, Violet, Rosanna and Davina.
…He continued to farm, recently reaping subsidies from wind turbines on his land reported to be worth £8 million over 20 years. Matthew Parris once wrote in The Times how visitors to Holyrood in 1999 had found themselves handed an “Instant Portraits” guide that included thumbnail sketches of MSPs, their hobbies and, bizarrely, their preferred epitaph. McGrigor listed his interests as farming blackface sheep, stockbroking and insurance, while offering as his epitaph: “Bye, bye, Miss America Pie.”
Sir Jamie McGrigor Bt, MSP for the Highlands & Islands, 1999-2016, was born on October 19, 1949. He died from emphysema on July 20, 2025, aged 75
https://www.thetimes.com/article/c5089d2d-efc8-4d06-aae8-e9abeb0fe298
