Colonel Ralph Stewart-Wilson 11th of Balnakeilly, MC 1923-2015

[Michael Rhodes]

_. Colonel Ralph Stewart-Wilson 11th of Balnakeilly, MC, who died 2 February, 2015, aged 92, was head of a Scottish landed family (formerly Stewart of Balnakeilly) of Pitlochrie, Perthshire. He was born 26 January, 1923, son of Aubyn Harold Raymond Wilson by his wife Muriel Athelstan Hood Stewart-Stevens, 10th of Balnakeilly (1899-1982), and succeeded his mother as head of the family; married 4 Oct, 1949, Rosalind Stedall,by whom he had two daughters, Maria and Lorna, and one son Aubyn (b 1963), who succeeds as 12th of Balnakeilly. 

Col Stewart-Wilson's younger brother was the late Sir Blair Stewart-Wilson, KCVO (1929-2011), a senior courtier in the household of the Queen.

Service of Thanksgiving at Holy Trinity, Pitlochry, Perthshire, Monday 16 Feb, 2015.

-=-

[Richard R]

Col Stewart-Wilson's obit has finally appeared in the Telegraph of 1 May 2015:

[EXTRACT]

Col Ralph Stewart-Wilson - obituary

Scottish soldier who won an MC for his reconnaissance under heavy fire during the advance on Aquino.

... Ralph Stewart-Wilson, the son of Aubyn Wilson and his wife Muriel Athelstan Hood, later Mrs Stewart-Stevens, 10th Lady of Balnakeilly, Perthshire, was born on January 26 1923 at Moncrieff House, Bridge of Earn, Perth. Aged three, he went with his mother and infant sister to Australia, where his father had established a sheep farming station .

They sailed in the same boat carrying some of the girders to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Wilsons were pioneers in Australia in very early times, and Sir Samuel Wilson, Stewart-Wilson’s great uncle, bought a large amount of land in Victoria. His maternal family, the Stewarts, moved from Foss on Loch Tummel to Balnakeilly in 1552....

...In 1971, after a final appointment as Colonel General Staff at HQ1 (British) Corps, he retired from the Army. He moved to a farm at Tulliemet in Perthshire and managed the nearby family estate at Balnakeilly as well as running the grouse shooting across the moors of Tulliemet, Edradour and Balnakeilly.

..On his mother’s death, Stewart-Wilson moved to Balnakeilly as the 11th Laird, maintaining a 463-year line of succession. He was an officer in the Atholl Highlanders, having been invited to join the Duke of Atholl’s private army in 1948. He was also a member of the Royal Company of Archers (Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland), to which he was admitted in 1962. He achieved a rare double by being a life member of both the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and MCC. In addition, he was closely involved in the Stewart Society and the local communities of Moulin and Pitlochry, and had a lifelong interest in ornithology. Ralph Stewart-Wilson married, in 1949, Rosalind Stedall, who survives him with their two daughters and a son.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11574275/Col-Ralph-Stewart-Wilson-obituary.html

[www.maltagenealogy.com]

Can I ask a silly question, when you state 11th of Balnakeilly, you mean 11th Chief of the Clan of Balnakeilly ?

[sarac...@googlemail.com]

No,the late Colonel was the 11th Chieftain(and Laird) of the Clan Stewart/Stuart cadet (Scottish) Highland branch of Balnakeilly.

[www.maltagenealogy.com]

Thanks a lot !.