User:Petersney/Dame Flora

Flora MacLeod of MacLeod, DBE (February 1878 - November, 1976) was the Chief of the Clan MacLeod from 1936 until her death in 1976. She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on June 1st, 1953.

Flora Louisa Cecilia was born on 3rd February 1878, at 10 Downing Street, London, the daughter of Reginald MacLeod and Lady Agnes Mary Cecilia, elder daughter of Sir Henry Stafford Northcote, Bt, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had exchanged residences with the Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli. Flora's parents lived at Hobart Place, London, where another daughter, Olive was born. Shortly afterwards Reginald was forced to leave London for financial reasons, and became Conservative Party Agent in Scotland. He lived with his family first at Juniper Green, in Edinburgh, and then at Granton House, but the damp, cold weather did not suit Lady Agnes and she became an invalid. Flora and Olive endured an exacting and lonely childhood, becoming well read and fluent in several languages, but lacking friends of their own age. Flora was very musical. Flora visited Dunvegan (Castle, Isle of Skye) for the first time 1893, and two years later the family fortunes changed when a legacy was left to her father by a great-aunt.

In 1896 Flora came of age. She was presented to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace and taken under the wing of Alice, the adopted daughter of Lord Mount Stephen, and wife of Sir Henry Northcote, later Lord Northcote, younger brother of Flora's mother. Flora visited Bayreuth and Vienna. In 1899 Reginald returned to London after almost twenty years, on being appointed Registrar General for the 1901 census. In the same year Flora's uncle Lord Northcote was appointed Governor of Bombay, and she went out to India when the British Raj was at its height in 1900.

On returning to England after six months Flora discovered that her father had taken a country house, called Vintners, and that Olive had burst upon the social scene without any of Flora's inhibitions. Flora found herself, after the glamour of India, back in London looking after her sick mother. Although there was no one she loved, within three months Flora was engaged to Hubert, tenth son and twelfth child of John Walter III, proprietor of The TImes. Flora did not have the courage to withdraw from the match. They were married on 5th June 1901 at St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, and made the best of their lives without attaining any real joy. In 1902 Hubert left The Times for five years and joined a publishing firm. Flora gave birth to a daughter, called Alice after her aunt, on 24th June, and three years later a second daughter, called Joan on 8th April 1905.

In 1907 Hubert rejoined The TImes and was sent to Brussels. After two years he and his family were moved to Berlin. These were the happiest years of Fiora's life, for she helped her husband in his work. In 1910 while Hubert was away at an eye clinic, Flora found herself working with James Mackenzie. He was a forceful and ambitious man, and Flora could not conceal her admiration for him. Flora returned to Vintners with her daughters, where she received a fateful letter from her husband, banning her from The Times office. Flora was furious. In 1913 Hubert began building a house at 19 Cheyne Place, London, and the following year Fora accompanied her father, now Sir Reginald, on a tour of Canada. Sir Reginald had become a successful businessman, a director of several trust companies; of Shell and of Gresham Insurance, of the last of which he became chairman. They crossed the country to Vancouver, and then went south into the United States to visit Yellowstone National Park, and north to Stewart in the Arctic Circle.

When war broke out Flora took her daughters down to Vintners. She and Hubert were virtually separated for five years, for he was sent to Brussels, Copenhagen and then Switzerland. Flora signed up as a V.A.D. and then moved to Cheyne Place in 1916 when the building was completed. She became an early recruit of the Infant Welfare Service and later chairman of the Infant Welfare Centre in Chelsea. Flora acquired a reputation as an organiser and became secretary of the War Saving Movement in Chelsea. For the first time in her life she came into contact with ordinary people. Meanwhile the heir to Dunvegan Castle, Ian Breac, the son of Canon Roderick, the youngest of the three surviving sons of Norman, 25th Chief, was killed in action in 1915.

By an entail of 1866 the heir to Dunvegan became the eldest daughter of the last surviving brother. At the age of thirty-seven Flora became a candidate, and despite having lived all her adult life as an Englishwoman her Highland spirit was awakened. It was not to be until 1934, however, after the deaths of her elder and younger uncles, that she became heir to Dunvegan.

After the war, when women, for the first time, were able to take part in politics. Flora was elected councillor for the Cheyne Ward of Chelsea Borough Council, and three years later for the much tougher Stanley Ward. She immersed herself in politics and became an early member, and later chairman, of the Chelsea Branch of the League of Nations Union. Meanwhile Hubert continued as The Times foreign correspondent, fulfilling various special assignments. In 1921 Flora's mother, an invalid for thirty years, died. Sir Reginald moved from Vintners to Cheyne Place. His elder brother Norman Magnus, 26th Chief, now 82 years old, stopped visiting Dunvegan, and asked Sir Reginald to take over responsibility for the place. Thus four times a year Flora and her father visited Dunvegan. It was at this time that the Estate's accumulated debts were fmally cleared with the sale to the Government of most of the parish of Bracadale to resettle returning servicemen.

Alice went up to Girton College, Cambridge in 1921, and Joan after an illness to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 1924. Before she had finished her degree she was engaged to Captain Robert Wolrige Gordon of Hallhead and Essiemont, who was fifteen years her senior. They were married at Christ Church, Chelsea in January 1927 and went to live in Aberdeenshire. Joan's first son, Robert, was born in September, the following year. Hubert returned permanently to London in 1927 a sick man. In 1929 Norman Magnus, 25th Chief died, and Sir Reginald became 27th Chief, and owner of Dunvegan Castle. Although 82 years old he improved the Castle, installing electric light and central heating, and with Flora entertained on a lavish scale. In 1933 the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, visited the Castle. Flora became more and more involved in rural life in Skye, opening an egg-grading station at Dunvegan and developing a tweed industry at Portnalong. In 1929 she was elected district councillor for Bracadale, and was co-opted as a member of both the Education and Public Health Commit tees of Inverness County Council, and of the County Nursing Association.

Within two years she had decided to give up her life in Chelsea. Having been christened and confirmed an Episcopalian, she joined the Church of Scotland, and played the organ in the parish church. She became the first woman to be elected a member of the Inverness County Council. On 21st December 1933 Hubert died in London. Flora was in Skye and wrote: 'It was with relief rather than sorrow that I received the news. I felt it was a liberation'. A few months later Canon Roderick, Flora's younger uncle, died, and she became the heir to Dunvegan. She changed her name to Flora, Mrs MacLeod of MacLeod.

Sir Reginald's health, however, was also failing. On 10th August 1935 Joan gave birth to twin sons, John and Patrick, and ten days later the Chief died. Flora, at the age of fifty-seven, became the owner of Dunvegan Castle and the MacLeod Estate. It was not until 17th March 1936 that the Clan MacLeod Society passed a resolution accepting Flora, Mrs MacLeod of MacLeod as 28th Chief of Clan MacLeod. Chief Flora was on the threshold of a new life.