McCORQUODALE, Ian Hamilton 1937-2023
Richard R
He was s of Hugh McCORQUODALE MC 1898-1963 scion of that gentry family f/o Cound Hall and as her 2nd h (his 1st cousin’s (head of the family) 1st wife) the novelist Dame (Mary) Barbara Hamilton DBE OStJ 1901-2000 d of Maj James Bertram (Bertie) Falkner CARTLAND 1876-ka1918 and Mary Hamilton 1877-1976 d of Lt-Col Sanford George Treweeke SCOBELL 1839-1912 scion of that gentry family of Kingwell and Edith PALAIRET 1850-1929. He m 1st 1970 (div 1993) Anna b 1941 d of Sqdn-Ldr John Harry Mckellar CHISHOLM RAF 1918-ka1944 and Patricia Lorraine 1915-64 d of Cyril Charles Montagu HULTON-HARROP 1886-1946 scion of that gentry family of Gatten and Edith Priscilla ROWE 1891-1968, and had two daus as above. He m 2nd 2000 (as her 2nd h, her 1st was Skevos THEODOROU) Bryony Jane Susan St John 1960-2015 d of Maj Roger Michael Atchley BRIND b 1934 reg Q2 Notts by his 1958 m reg Q3 Sussex to Jenni(fer) M. St John GREY b c1931 reg Q1 Kent
colinp
McCorquodale looked after his mother’s rights worldwide, did her historical research and opened new markets, even behind the Iron Curtain
Ian McCorquodale, who has died aged 85, was the favourite child of the romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland and for many years her manager; after her death in 2000, he was the principal keeper of her flame, publishing The Barbara Cartland Pink Collection – 160 previously unpublished manuscripts, as books and e–books.
Ian Hamilton McCorquodale was born on October 11 1937, the elder of Barbara Cartland’s two sons from her marriage to Hugh McCorquodale, MC. The novelist had previously been married to Hugh’s cousin, Alexander McCorquodale, the father of Raine, who would famously go on to marry Earl Spencer, father of Diana, Princess of Wales. Barbara Cartland’s divorce from “Sachie” in 1933 made lurid headlines, with charges and counter–charges of infidelity. Her “blissfully happy” second marriage, however, only ended with Hugh’s death in 1963....
After he married Anna Chisholm, a cousin of the Earl of Rosslyn, in 1970, Barbara Cartland would not have women along, so she mostly travelled with Ian’s younger brother Glen. In the mid 1970s Ian gave up his job at BPC to work full-time for “Cartland Promotions”, established with Glen, though in 1981, as a side interest, he acquired Debrett’s Peerage, selling it in 1988 to the technical publishers Sterling but continuing as chairman until 1997....
After his first marriage, Ian and Anna moved into a large apartment overlooking the Thames in London, but he spent weekends in a farmhouse on the Camfield estate, having meals with his mother. But when he and Anna divorced amicably in 1993, there was speculation that the strains in the relationship between mother and wife might have had something to do with it. “Mum and my former wife didn’t see eye to eye on a few things but I didn’t worry about the arguments,’’ he told The Daily Telegraph guardedly in 2013. “Anna and I drifted apart and when I told Mum we were divorcing she said I would soon find someone else.”
In fact it took him the best part of a decade, and his mother was delighted with his choice. Bryony Brind was a former Royal Ballet principal dancer, 22 years his junior. They met at a cocktail party and Bryony recalled that when she was introduced to her prospective mother-in-law, “she liked the fact I was a dancer and told me I looked like one of her heroines.” Ian and Bryony postponed their wedding, planned for May 2000, because of Dame Barbara’s final illness. She died on the day they were due to marry and they wed in September that year....
In 2002 McCorquodale, who enjoyed country pursuits including fishing and shooting, suffered two strokes, which left him with a limp. Bryony Brind cared for him devotedly, but it was she who succumbed first, dying of heart failure after a short illness in 2015, aged 55.
Ian McCorquodale is survived by two daughters from his first marriage.
Ian McCorquodale, born October 11 1937, died February 10 2023
marquess
Richard R
Obit in the Times of 7 March 2023:
E X T R A C T
Ian McCorquodale obituary
Son of Barbara Cartland who handled her publishing business and loyally guarded her reputation as the ‘Queen of Romance’
Acting as the keeper of [Cartland’s] flame after her death was merely an extension of the devotion he had shown her in life. “I put Mum on a pedestal even though she was dictatorial,” he said. “And I did what she said because I hated upsetting her.”
… For half a century she made her home in lavish style at Camfield Place, a ten-bedroom country mansion set in a 100-acre estate near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, that was once the home of Beatrix Potter’s grandparents.
McCorquodale and his younger brother, Glen, were at Cartland’s bedside at Camfield Place when she died. In accordance with her wishes she was buried in the grounds of the estate under an oak that was said to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth I…
… Ian Hamilton McCorquodale was born in 1937, the elder of two sons to Cartland and Hugh McCorquodale MC, her second husband. Hugh was a cousin of her first husband, Alexander “Sachie” McCorquodale, the heir to a printing business that had been in the family since 1846. Cartland’s divorce from Sachie made headlines amid charges of infidelity.
Ian’s half-sister Raine from his mother’s first marriage became Raine Spencer, second wife of the eighth Earl Spencer, the father of Princess Diana. As Diana’s step-grandmother, Cartland was invited to attend her wedding in 1981 to Prince Charles in St Paul’s Cathedral. Perhaps because Cartland’s relationship with Raine had never been warm, she declined and was represented at the wedding by Ian and Glen…
… In 1970 he married Anna Chisholm, the daughter of an RAF squadron leader who died in the Second World War when his aircraft was lost in a bombing raid over Germany. The couple set up home in London but weekends were invariably spent at Camfield in a farmhouse on his mother’s estate. When they divorced in 1993 he moved back in with his mother. “At dinner, which was always black tie, I would sit at one end of our long dining table while she sat at the other in full evening dress, even when it was just the two of us,” he said. “We ate formally with all the silverware until she was 97.”
In early 2000 he became engaged to Bryony Brind, a former principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet who had partnered Rudolf Nureyev at Covent Garden. The wedding had to be postponed, however, because of his mother’s final illness and she died on the day they had originally been due to marry in May 2000. The wedding took place four months later
Two years later he suffered the first of two strokes, which left him with a limp. His wife cared for him devotedly, yet although she was 22 years his junior she died in 2015 of a heart attack at the age of 55. He is survived by his two daughters, Tara and Iona, from his first marriage…
…He… bought Debrett’s Peerage, attempting to stem operating losses of £300,000 a year with such inventive spin-offs as a Debrett’s cookbook and a Book of the Royal Wedding. By 1987 he had been forced to admit defeat and sold the company to the Canadian media group SPG, which allowed him to stay on as chairman for another decade.
Ian McCorquodale, son and manager of Barbara Cartland, was born on October 11, 1937. He died of undisclosed causes on February 10, 2023, aged 85
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ian-mccorquodale-obituary-p2xf6hn5x