Francis David Charteris, 12th Earl of Wemyss and 8th Earl of MarchKTDL (19 January 1912 – 12 December 2008), styled Lord Elcho from 1916 to 1937, was a Scottish peer, landowner and conservationist. From 1946 to 1991, he served as chairman and then president of the National Trust for Scotland.[1]
Early life and education
He was born in Belgravia in London, the eldest son of Lady Violet Manners, daughter of the 8th Duke of Rutland, and Capt. Hugo Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho, who was killed in action in 1916 in Egypt while serving in the First World War. He was educated at Eton College and at Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1933), and also studied agriculture at both Oxford and Cambridge as a postgraduate student. At age 25, he succeeded his grandfather in the family titles in 1937.[2]
Career
Wemyss was commissioned into the Lovat Scouts (Territorial Army) as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1932.[3] He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1935 and transferred to the TA Reserve of Officers in 1937, and served as a Colonial Administrator in Basutoland from 1937 until 1944. During the Second World War, he did not rejoin the Lovat Scouts but instead served as a major with Basuto troops in the African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps from 1941 to 1944 in North Africa, on account of his fluency in Sotho.[4]
He married, first, in 1940, Mavis Lynette Gordon Murray (d. 1988), daughter of Edwin Edward Murray, of Hermanus, Cape Province, South Africa. They had two daughters and two sons. The elder son, Iain David Charteris, Lord Elcho & Methil, was born on 20 June 1945 and died in a motor accident on 3 April 1954. Their younger daughter Caroline Letty Charteris was born on 5 November 1946 and died on 22 November 1946.[5] Lord Wemyss married, secondly, in 1995, Shelagh Kathleen Kennedy, née Thrift.[2]
United Kingdom
British Army
