John Alan Burns, 4th Baron Inverclyde of
Castle Wemyss
Castle Wemyss was a large mansion in Wemyss Bay, Scotland. It stood on the southern shore of the Firth of Clyde at Wemyss Point, where the firth turns southwards.
History
It was built around 1850 for Charles Wilsone Brown, a property developer w ...
,
KStJ
The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...
(12 December 1897 – 17 June 1957) was a Scottish nobleman, the son of
James, 3rd Lord Inverclyde and Charlotte Mary Emily ''née'' Nugent-Dunbar.
Education
He was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...
and the
Royal Military College in
Berkshire.
Military career
Joining the
Scots Guards
The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the E ...
, he was wounded by a German bullet while going '
over the top
Over the top may refer to:
Music
* "Over the Top", a 2017 song by Hey! Say! JUMP
* ''Over the Top'' (Cozy Powell album), 1979 album by British drummer Cozy Powell
* ''Over the Top'' (Infinite album), 2011 album by South Korean band Infinite
* ...
' in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. He reached the rank of lieutenant in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
As a subaltern in the Scots Guards, he fought in France until wounded by a bullet through the palm of one hand.
Gangrene impeded swift healing, but at last he was ready to return to the front and confided in a friend that if he had to die for it, he would try to win a decoration for gallantry in action to make his father proud of him. But instead of being sent overseas he was shunted into a 'cushy' job at the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
he served in France as a captain in the Scots Guards and as ADC to the General Officer Commanding Lines of Communication before being evacuated from
St Nazaire.
He was appointed
Honorary Colonel of the newly formed
, in the
Territorial Army on 11 January 1939, and held the position until 1944.
Inverclyde was on board the
RMS ''Lancastria'' when she was sunk off St Nazaire on 17 June 1940. He was rescued by the crew of
HMT ''Cambridgeshire'', a 443-ton anti-submarine trawler, which had been requisitioned by the navy in August 1939; she was then given a 4-inch gun, machine guns and depth charges, she herself surviving the war and, after returning to peacetime trawling in 1945 as the ''Kingstone Sapphire'', was scrapped in 1954. After returning to England, Inverclyde presented each of his rescuers with a round rosewood box full of cigarettes, each box with an engraved silver plaque, each individually named and then given the wording "... HMS Cambridgeshire, St Nazaire to Plymouth, 17 to 19 June 1940, from a grateful passenger, Inverclyde/Scots Guards".
Burns succeeded as Lord Inverclyde on the death of his father on 16 August 1919, and inherited
Castle Wemyss
Castle Wemyss was a large mansion in Wemyss Bay, Scotland. It stood on the southern shore of the Firth of Clyde at Wemyss Point, where the firth turns southwards.
History
It was built around 1850 for Charles Wilsone Brown, a property developer w ...
at
Wemyss Bay
Wemyss Bay (; ) is a town on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in Inverclyde in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the traditional county of Renfrewshire. It is adjacent to Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire. The town and villages have alway ...
in the
County of Renfrew
Renfrewshire or the County of Renfrew is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It contains the local government council areas of Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, as ...
. He was invested as a Knight of the
Venerable Order of Saint John
The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...
and admitted to the
Royal Company of Archers
The Royal Company of Archers, The King's Bodyguard for Scotland is a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's bodyguard in Scotland—a role it has performed since 1822 during the reign of King George IV when the company provided a per ...
.
Post-military career
Not having inherited any business acumen from his immediate forebears, he eschewed the idea of taking an active role in the running of the
Cunard Steamship Company
Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...
and preferred instead the pleasant job of
aide-de-camp to the
Governor of Gibraltar
The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of the governor is to act as the ...
, 1920–21. Inverclyde became a lieutenant in the Reserve of Officers, and in 1922 was Assistant Private Secretary, in an unpaid capacity, to the
Secretary of State for Scotland.
After leaving his regiment, he retired into private life as master of Wemyss and man-about-town with a
bachelor flat in
Mayfair. He acquired hunters, a yacht, and a
grouse
Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...
moor.
During the winter he rode with the Eglinton in
Ayrshire; in the early summer months he cruised the Mediterranean; in the late summer and early autumn he shot grouse. His civic duties were not obligatory and, according to his second wife, June, he never took more than cursory interest in local matters. He did, however, endow two public buildings which remain in use: the
Inverclyde National Sports Training Centre at
Largs
Largs ( gd, An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic.
A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town mark ...
and the Inverclyde Centre in
Greenock as a
British Sailors Society home, now used by the local authority's homeless persons unit. He was chairman of the British Sailors' Society in Scotland for 18 years.
He was awarded Commandeur Légion d'honneur, La Medaille de la Reconnaissance, La Médaille de la Ville de Nancy, honorary citizenship of the towns of Brest and Veulettes-sur-Mer, and an honorary doctorate of the University of Dijon.
He was president of the Franco-Scottish Society (1949–54), chairman of Friends of France Council for Glasgow and West of Scotland (1942–57) and an honorary member of the Association of Française Libres.
Personal life
He married, firstly, Olive Sylvia Sainsbury, daughter of Arthur Sainsbury, millionaire owner of the J Sainsbury chain of grocery shops, on 23 November 1926. They divorced in Scotland in 1928. She went on to marry the racehorse trainer Captain James Townsend Pearce.
Secondly, he married
June Howard-Tripp, daughter of Walter Howard-Tripp, on 21 March 1929. As simply 'June', she had been a well established star of
revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own dur ...
and
silent films
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...
, but gave up her showbusiness career on marriage, although this too was to end in divorce, in 1933.
Death
Inverclyde died on 17 June 1957, at the age of 59, without issue, the title becoming extinct on his death. The name ''Inverclyde'' was however resurrected in the early 1970s for the new
local authority district
The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...
centred on Greenock, a creation of the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The local newspaper, the ''
Greenock Telegraph
The Greenock Telegraph is a local daily newspaper serving Inverclyde (the council area containing the towns of Gourock, Greenock and Port Glasgow), Scotland.
Founded in 1857, it was the first halfpenny daily newspaper in Britain. It was for a ...
'', said that the name "would in a way be a tribute to a man whose interest in the area was always constant".
[''Greenock Telegraph'' editorial, 5 July 1973] Inverclyde remains as a
Scottish council area.
Publications
Inverclyde published a memoir of two cruises: on the
steam yacht
A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.
Origin of the name
The English steamboat entrepreneur George Dodd (1783–1827) used the term ...
the ''Sapphire'', which belonged to the mother of his friend
Huttleston Broughton, to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Malaya in 1924/5, and on his own steam yacht the ''Beryl'' around the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
in 1929. Entitled ''Porpoises and People'', it was published in 1930. Although in part dedicated to his wife ('Topsy' in the book), in her own memoirs, June states that Burns never told her or anyone else he was writing it.
References
*Lord Inverclyde, ''Porpoises and People'', Halton & Truscott Smith 1930
*June Tripp, ''The Whole Story''. (autobiography). 1932
*June Tripp, ''The Glass Ladder''. (autobiography). 1960
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inverclyde, Alan Burns, 4th Baron
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
1897 births
1957 deaths
People from Inverclyde
People educated at Eton College
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Scots Guards officers
Knights of the Order of St John
Members of the Royal Company of Archers