James Alexander Wedderburn "Hamish" St. Clair-Erskine (23 August 1909 – 17 December 1973) was an English aristocrat aesthete. He was engaged to Nancy Mitford.

Early life

James Alexander Wedderburn nicknamed "Hamish" was the son of James St Clair-Erskine, 5th

Earl of Rosslyn Earl of Rosslyn is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1801 for Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Baron Loughborough, Lord Chancellor from 1793 to 1801, with special remainder to his nephew Sir James St Clair-Erskine, as We ...

(1869–1939). His siblings were Mary St Clair-Erskine Dunn Campbell McCabe Dunn (1912–1993), Rosabelle St Clair-Erskine (1891–1956) and Francis St Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough (1892–1929). At Eton College, St Clair-Erskine was the lover of

Tom Mitford Major Thomas David Freeman-Mitford (2 January 1909 – 30 March 1945) was the only son of the 2nd Baron Redesdale and brother of the Mitford Sisters. Tom Mitford was killed in action during the Second World War. Early life Mitford was born ...

. He attended Oxford University, where he was friends with English poet Sir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

. In the ''Letters'' edited by Betjeman's daughter, Candida Lycett Green, and published in 1996, she remembers how her father and St. Clair-Erskine "went out in fast cars, driving all night in the flat country near Coolham". According to James Lees-Milne's diaries: "At Oxford he had the most enchanting looks – mischievous, twinkling eyes, slanting eyebrows. He was slight of build, well dressed, gay as gay, always snobbish however, and terribly conscious of his nobility ..the toast of the university." At Oxford he was friends with Evelyn Waugh.

Career

He fought in the World War II, became a Major in the Coldstream Guards, escaping from a prison camp and walking through Italy to join the Allied troops. He was awarded a Military Cross in 1943. In 1969, together with

Anthony Rhodes Anthony Rhodes (September 24, 1916 – August 23, 2004) was a British writer of memoirs, novels, travelogues, reviews and histories. Rhodes was born in Plymouth, England, and was the eldest of three sons of Dorothy and Colonel George Rhodes CBE. ...

, he translated ''Tapestries'' by Mercedes Viale Ferrero. He was the ''dame de compagnie'' (lady's companion) to Daisy Fellowes and Enid Kenmare.

Personal life

Hamish St. Clair-Erskine was gay, but nevertheless, Nancy Mitford fell in love with him, and it was due to this unrequited love that she attempted suicide and wrote her first novel, ''Highland Fling'': the male lead is based upon St. Clair-Erskine. In the 1920s he was friends with Aileen Sibell Mary Guinness and the Hon. Brinsley Sheridan Bushe Plunket and was guest at Luttrellstown Castle, County Dublin. He was good friends with Patrick Leigh Fermor and his wife Joan: in the 1940s the three of them drove down through France and Italy, and later Joan accompanied Peter Quennell and St. Clair-Erskine to Sicily where she took photographs for an article Quennell was writing. At St. Clair-Erskine's death in 1973,

Alan Payan Pryce-Jones Lt-Col. Alan Payan Pryce-Jones TD (18 November 1908 – 22 January 2000) was a British book critic, writer, journalist and Liberal Party politician. He was notably editor of ''The Times Literary Supplement'' from 1948 to 1959. Background Pryce-Jo ...

described him as a "bright apparition who once upon a time swept past them like a kingfisher: all colour and sparkle and courage ..

e found E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); pl ...

small place in a world which turned away from an unambitious charmer whose only enduring gift was his charm".

Legacy

Adrian Maurice Daintrey Adrian Maurice Daintrey, RWA (1902–1988) was a British portrait and landscape painter. Life Adrian Daintrey was born in Balham, London on 23 June 1902, the youngest of three children of Ernest Daintrey, a solicitor and his wife Lucy Mary (née ...

painted his portrait, sold by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

on 25 August 2005.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:St. Clair-Erskine, James Alexander Wedderburn 1909 births 1973 deaths Gay men People educated at Eton College Alumni of the University of Oxford Recipients of the Military Cross Younger sons of earls British Army personnel of World War II Coldstream Guards officers British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Italy