STIRLING, Sir Angus Duncan Aeneas (1933-2026)
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Sir Angus Stirling, National Trust director-general who steered it away from politics and tripled membership
A very safe pair of hands, from 1983 to 1995 he negotiated major acquisitions and navigated controversies: ‘We are not a political lobby’
Sir Angus Stirling, who has died aged 92, commanded the heights of Britain’s cultural establishment as chairman of the Royal Opera House, director-general of the National Trust and deputy secretary-general of the Arts Council.
A connoisseur and amateur painter of patrician stock, once described as having “the informal urbanity of an old-style diplomatist”, Stirling spent part of his early career as a banker at Lazards before joining the Arts Council of Great Britain, as it then was, at the beginning of 1971 [….]
Angus Duncan Æneas Stirling was born on December 10 1933. He was descended from the Rev John Stirling of Craigie, who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1833 and whose son, also John, made a Victorian fortune as an ironmaster and acquired extensive estates in Ross-shire.
Angus’s father Duncan was a grandson of the second John; known as “Golly” in the City, he became chairman of the Westminster Bank and briefly, after a 1969 merger with National Provincial, the first chairman of NatWest. Angus’s mother, Lady Marjorie, was a daughter of the 8th Earl of Dunmore, who was awarded a VC during the Malakand Rising on the North-West Frontier in 1897 [….]
During his Covent Garden years, Stirling was a governor and deputy chairman of the Royal Ballet. At various times he was a council member, governor or trustee of the Byam Shaw School of Art, the Courtauld Institute, the London Symphony Orchestra, Live Music Now, the Theatres Trust, the Royal School of Church Music, Gresham School and Stowe House Preservation Trust. He was also president of the Friends of Holland Park and a former Prime Warden of the Fishmongers Company. He was knighted in 1994.
He married in 1959 (Armyne) Morar Schofield, a granddaughter of the 21st Lord Hastings; they had a son and two daughters.
Sir Angus Stirling, born December 10 1933, died June 1 2026
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He was s of Capt Duncan Alexander STIRLING 1899-1990 scion of that Scots gentry family of Fairburn and Lady Marjorie Hilda MURRAY 1904-2000 d of 8 Earl of DUNMORE VC DSO MVO 1871-1962 and (Lucinda) Dorothea 1878-1966 d of Col Horace William KEMBLE sometime head of that Scots gentry family of Laggan and Kythe Agatha HANBURY 1857-1951 scion of that Scots gentry family of Drumstinchall.
He m 1959 Armyne Morar Helen b 1934 d of William George Broadbent SCHOFIELD 1899-1987 sometime head of that gentry family of Low Burton Hall and Hon Armyne ASTLEY 1909-79 d of 21 Baron HASTINGS 1882-1956 and Lady Marguerite Helen NEVILL 1887-1975 d of 3 Marquess of ABERGAVENNY 1854-1948 and Maud Augusta LGStJ 1864-1927 d of William BECKETT-DENISON 1826-90 (also f of 2 Baron GRIMTHORPE 1856-1917) and Hon Helen DUNCOMBE 1831-96 d 2 Baron FEVERSHAM and Lady Louisa STEWART 1804-89 d of 8 Earl of GALLOWAY 1768-1834 by his wife a dau of 1 Earl of UXBRIDGE 1744-1812 who was f of 1 Marquess of ANGLESEY 1768-1854, etc, and had a son and two daus as above. His elder dau Emma married a 5xgt gs of 4 Viscount CHETWYND 1721-91 and has issue.