The MACLAREN of MACLAREN 1954-2023
Richard R
He was s of Donald MACLAREN
of MACLAREN 1910-66 (who he succ as) Chief
of that name & Clan Labhran and Margaret Sinclair d of Douglas MILLER.
He m 1978 Maida-Jane AITCHISON b 1954 ref 644/4/1730 Provan and had three sons
(Donald Og, FLORIAN ROBERT b 1981 ref MIN/170 Minor Records, who succ his f,
and Louis) and two daus (Iona and Marina).
Death & other details announced on Clan website: https://www.clanmaclarensociety.com/index.html
Richard R
From the Telegraph of 31 July 2023: THE MACLAREN OF MACLAREN AND ACHLESKINE Donald died suddenly on 22nd July, aged 68. Chief for 57 years and husband to Maida for 45 years. His Funeral will be held at Balquhidder Kirk on 12th August at 12 noon. Creag an Tuirc.
colinp
Donald MacLaren of MacLaren and Achleskine, colourful Highland clan chief and diplomat – obituary
He believed that the clan had a place in the modern world, while as a diplomat he relied on cultivating personal contacts
Donald MacLaren of MacLaren and Achleskine, who has died aged 68, was a larger-than-life Highland clan chief and distinguished diplomat, who served as British ambassador to Georgia, after postings to Berlin, Moscow, Havana, Caracas and Kyiv.
Although he was a man who had lived everywhere, he was also, more profoundly than most, a man from somewhere: in his case, a patch of Perthshire 18 miles long and seven miles wide, from the Braes of Balquhidder to Loch Earn. His ancestress was a mermaid who lived at the edge of the village of Balquhidder, in Loch Voil, and fell in love with a mortal man. He claimed to be a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth II through their common descent from the fifth-century King Erc of Dalriada.
As late as the 19th century, the lands around Balquhidder were still home to 200 families of MacLarens, the clan of which, in 1966, aged just 11, he became the 25th chief, on the unexpected death of his father, Donald. MacLaren diaspora from all over the world would turn up at the door of his farmhouse, and ask: “Is the chief here?”
Clan mattered to him, but not because it made him feel grand. The MacLarens were actually, in clan terms, dirt poor, officially “chiefless and landless” ever since the 16th century, when the MacGregors, fleeing the Campbells, had plundered their lands. His great-grandfather had sold their remaining farmland; it was only in 1957, when Donald MacLaren was three years old, that his father, a shipping executive at United Baltic, repurchased the Boar’s Rock at Balquhidder, the clan’s rallying point (their quirk was a preference for going into battle naked), and had the label “chiefless and landless” removed by the Lyon Court, which adjudicates on heraldic matters in Scotland.
His father – like him, a colourful character, his broad Scots accent impervious to an English education – founded The Clan MacLaren Society, with the hope of helping out any clansmen in difficulty, financial or otherwise. “If any MacLaren goes to clink, we ought all to welcome him on release,” he said.
Donald MacLaren inherited his father’s conviction that the idea of a clan had a place in the modern world. “A latter-day fancy-dress reconstruction harking back to the golden days before the clans were broken at the Battle of Culloden is no use to anyone,” he told the press, when he became Convenor of the Standing Council of Clan Chiefs….
Donald MacLaren was born at St Albans, Hertfordshire, on August 22 1954, the only son of Donald MacLaren of MacLaren and his wife Margaret, née Miller, and spent his early life in London….
The climax of his career came when, aged just 49, he was made Ambassador to Georgia, just after the 2003 Rose Revolution, the first bloodless change of power in the Caucasus. British newspapers made hay with his full title, His Excellency Sir Donald MacLaren of MacLaren, the MacLaren of MacLaren, KCMG [sic, I don’t believe he was appointed KCMG]. (In the USSR, confused by his title, Soviet diplomats on the telephone used to introduce themselves as “the Ivanov of Ivanov speaking”.)……
Donald MacLaren of MacLaren had expressive eyebrows, a mischievous grin, a formidable brain, a silver tongue and an eternally youthful joie de vivre. He was rarely seen out of a kilt. He died suddenly, surrounded by his clan, at the 2023 Balquhidder, Lochearnhead and Strathyre Highland Games and Gathering. His wife Maida, Madam MacLaren of MacLaren, survives him, with their two daughters and three sons, the second of whom, Florian MacLaren of MacLaren, succeeds him as clan chief.
Donald MacLaren of MacLaren, born August 22 1954, died July 22 2023
It seems slightly surprising that he retired from the Diplomatic Service without even a CMG