Raymond Durie of Durie (10 August 1905 – 29 March 1999), until 1988 known as Raymond Dewar-Durie, was a British army officer involved in the

Yangtze incident The ''Amethyst'' Incident, also known as the Yangtze Incident, was a historic event which involved the Royal Navy ships , , , and on the Yangtze River for three months during the Chinese Civil War in the summer of 1949. Description On ...

who later became chief of the

Clan Durie Durie is a Scottish family of the Scottish Lowlands, not a Scottish clan as sometimes reported.Way, George and Squire, Romily. ''Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia''. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standi ...

Career

Raymond Dewar-Durie was born in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, where his father was the manager of the

Imperial Bank of Persia The Imperial Bank of Persia ( fa, بانک شاهنشاهی ایران‎, Bank-e Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân) was a British bank that operated as the state bank and bank of issue in Iran (formerly known as Persia until 1935) between 1889 and 1929. I ...

. He was sent to school in England from aged five and later attended

Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the t ...

in Tiverton and the

RMA Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

before being commissioned into the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

in 1925. Dewar-Durie had an interesting war, including an escape from

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

across

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese held territory, taking 51 days to reach unoccupied China. He returned to China in 1949 as Assistant Military Attache to the British Embassy in

Nanking Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

and played a vital part in the Yangtze incident involving HMS Amethyst

Clan Durie

Although there was never any doubt that Raymond Dewar-Durie was head of the Durie family which had settled in Fife since the 16th century, he did not change his name until 1988, when he followed up the Lord Lyon King of Arms' direction, first made to his father, to claim

Chief of the Name The Chief of the Name, or in older English usage Captain of his Nation, is the recognised head of a family or clan (''fine'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic). The term has sometimes been used as a title in Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland In Eliza ...

and Arms of Durie and became Durie of Durie.

Sources

Extracted from the obituary of Lt-Col Raymond Durie of Durie, The Independent, 21 April 1999
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durie of Durie, Raymond 1905 births 1999 deaths People educated at Blundell's School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers Scottish clan chiefs 20th-century Scottish businesspeople