Charles Kennedy, 8th Marquess of Ailsa



Archibald Angus Charles Kennedy, 8th Marquess of Ailsa, 19th Earl of Cassilis, 21st Lord Kennedy, 8th Baron Ailsa, (13 September 1956 – 15 January 2015), was a Scottish peer.

He was a member of the House of Lords from 1994 to 1999.

Early life
The future Lord Ailsa was born on 13 September 1956 in Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, the eldest of the two sons of Archibald Kennedy, 7th Marquess of Ailsa, and his wife Mary Burn. He grew up in Cassillis House, another family seat, and was educated at Strathallan School, where he studied forestry and farming.

Ailsa's maternal grandfather was John Burn of Amble, Northumberland, and his paternal grandparents were Angus Kennedy, 6th Marquess of Ailsa and his wife Gertrude Millicent Cooper, daughter of Gervas Weir Cooper, of Wordwell Hall, Suffolk.

Peerage
The Marquesses of Ailsa are the hereditary Clan Chiefs of Clan Kennedy. The title is derived from the island of Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde, which has been owned by the head of the family. In 2011, Ailsa put the island up for sale. As of March 2013, it was unsold and was priced at "offers over £1,500,000".

Kennedy was 19th Earl of Cassilis, 21st Lord Kennedy, 8th Marquess of Ailsa, and 8th Baron Ailsa, succeeding to the peersges on 7 April 1994 after the death of his father. He inherited a 10,000-acre estate, including Ailsa Craig. On his death, he was succeeded by his younger brother, Lord David Kennedy, whose heir apparent is his son Archibald David Kennedy (born 1995).

Career
Kennedy gained a commission in the Queen's Own Highlanders. He later taught skiing and mountain craft to teams of army youth in the Scottish Highlands and the Brecon Beacons in Wales before retiring from the military in the Ayrshire Yeomanry.

After working in sales, marketing and agriculture, he founded Lord Charles Tours which organised trips to Scotland, Ireland, Sweden and Lapland.

Personal life
In 1979, Lord Ailsa married Dawn Leslie Anne Keen, the only daughter of David A. Keen, of Rue Émeriau in Paris, France. Before their 1989 divorce, during which "his wife was accused of an affair with a teenage milk boy," they had two children:


 * Lady Rosemary Margaret Kennedy (b. 1980)
 * Lady Alicia-Jane Lesley Kennedy (b. 1981)

The 8th Marquess died on 15 January 2015, while visiting a Kennedy clan function in Altamonte Springs, Florida.