Inchdrewer Castle
Coat of arms of Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart de la Lanne-Mirrlees (granted 1953)

Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart de la Lanne-Mirrlees (13 January 1925 – 23 June 2012) was an author and former officer of arms at the College of Arms in London.

Biography

He was born as Robin Ian Evelyn Grinnell-Milne in 1925. His father was Duncan Grinnell-Milne and his mother was Frances Warrington Peyrigné Lalanne (daughter of Frank Dale Lalanne, US Ambassador to Prague), who remarried secondly Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan Mirrlees. His step-aunt was the author Hope Mirrlees.[1] He was a godson of the 11th Duke of Argyll. He was educated at the English School of Cairo, and also in Paris. He attended Merton College, Oxford, matriculating in 1947 and taking a third class degree in PPE in 1949.[2] He undertook military service, rising to the rank of captain in the Royal Artillery. His heraldic career began on 17 May 1952 when he was appointed Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary.[3] Later that year his name was changed to that listed above to the name Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart de La Lanne-Mirrlees.[4]

In 1958 he adopted by deed poll the name of Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart le Compte de La Lanne-Mirrlees[5] and in 1959 rectified the spelling to Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart le Comte de La Lanne-Mirrlees.[6] He would hold this post of Rouge Dragon Pursuivant until December 1962, when he was promoted to the office of Richmond Herald of Arms in Ordinary.[7] He retired from this post in 1967.[8] During his time at the College of Arms, Robin Milne Stuart de la Lanne-Mirrlees was perhaps best known for his correspondence with Ian Fleming. Fleming was doing research for his book On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

In 1964 the Republic of San Marino granted him a comital title, which was recognised by ex-King Umberto II of Italy.[1]

In 1971 he bought and partly restored Inchdrewer Castle, a dilapidated 16th-century fortress, near Banff, Aberdeenshire, once owned by ancestors.[9][10]

In 1975 Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees was recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms as (feudal) Baron of Inchdrewer and Laird of Bernera.[11] He was also a Knight of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.

In 1990 he sold the uninhabited island of Eilean Chearstaidh he purchased, in 1962, with the islands of Great Bernera (where he lived near until his death) and Little Bernera, located in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

He owned other grand properties including a £400,000 chateau in France – his mother’s former home – a flat in Paris, Ratzenegg Castle in Austria, a seven-bedroom Holland Park mansion in London and a Swiss chalet.[12] Moreover he owned a prized collection of antiques and paintings, which were diminished after he auctioned them off.[12]

In 1992, by a further deed poll, he adopted the name Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart le Prince de La Lanne-Mirrlees.[13]

In 2005, he began to assert his claim to a princely title bestowed on him ad personam (on an individual basis) in 1967 by ex-King Peter II of Yugoslavia, to whom he was an honorary aide-de-camp, who would have created him Prince of Incoronata,[12] according to an Adriatic island on the Dalmatian coast.

After several years of ill health, he died at a nursing home in Stornoway, Scotland on 23 June 2012. Robin was survived by his three adult grandchildren and his son Patrick de La Lanne-Mirrlees (son of Margareta Duchess of Wurttemberg, granddaughter of King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria), former mayor of Delmenhorst, Germany, then practising as lawyer, specializing in international law, and now as Oberkirchenrat (senior church council member) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.[12]

Inspiration for character of James Bond

Count Robin played a large role in the development of the James Bond character. A Scottish aristocrat well known for wooing beautiful women, he worked with Ian Fleming on his book On Her Majesty's Secret Service and was the main inspiration for the characteristics of James Bond. In the story, James Bond's cover as genealogist Sir Hilary Bray was based on the Count's position as a heraldic researcher at the College of Arms in London.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Obituary of Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees". The Telegraph. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  2. ↑ Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 380.
  3. ↑ "No. 39549". The London Gazette. 23 May 1952. p. 2814.
  4. ↑ "No. 39676". The London Gazette. 21 October 1952. p. 5554. Notice is hereby given that ROBIN IAN EVELYN MILNE STUART DE LA LANNE-MIRRLEES (now or lately called Robin Ian Evelyn Grinnell-Milne) of the College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street in the city of London, Esquire, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms, Captain the Royal Regiment of Artillery by deed poll dated the 15th day of October, 1952, and duly enrolled in the College of Arms on the 16th day of October, 1952, has assumed and adopted the surname of Milne Stuart de La Lanne-Mirrlees in lieu of his former surname of Grinnell-Milne and intends henceforth upon all occasions to sign and subscribe himself and to be called and styled by the surname of Milne Stuart de La Lanne-Mirrlees in lieu of his former surname of Grinnell-Milne. — Dated 16th October 1952.
  5. ↑ "No. 41584". The London Gazette. 26 December 1958. p. 7927. Notice is hereby given that by a Deed Poll dated the 9th day of July 1958, and enrolled in the Supreme Court of Judicature on the 19th day of December 1958, ROBERT IAN EVELYN MILNE STUART LE COMPTE DE LA LANNE-MIRRLEES, of Basil Mansions, Basil Street in theRoyal Borough of Kensington, Esquire, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth, abandoned the surname of Milne Stuart De La Lanne-Mirrlees.
  6. ↑ "No. 41629". The London Gazette. 10 February 1959. p. 992. This following notice is in substitution for that which appeared on page 7927 of the London Gazette, dated the 26th December 1958: Notice is hereby given that by a Deed Poll dated the 9th day of July 1958 and enrolled in the Supreme Court of Judicature on the 19th day of December 1958, ROBIN IAN EVELYN MILNE STUART LE COMTE DE LA LANNE-MIRRLEES of Basil Mansions, Basil Street in the Royal Borough of Kensington, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth, abandoned the surname of Milne Stuart de La Lanne-Mirrlees.
  7. ↑ "No. 42854". The London Gazette. 11 December 1962. p. 9648.
  8. ↑ "No. 44298". The London Gazette. 27 April 1967. p. 4677.
  9. ↑ "Inchdrewer Castle, Nr Alvah". Buildings at Risk Register. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  10. ↑ Robin de La Lanne-Mirrlees was the 5x-great-grandson of "John Milne, Burgess of Banff, and Elspeth Stuart of Oxhill whose family owned Inchdrewer Castle." — Elspeth Stuart of Oxhill, thepeerage.com. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  11. ↑ "No. 19840". The Edinburgh Gazette. 16 March 1976. p. 331.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Death of Hebridean crofting prince". Hebrides News. 24 June 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  13. ↑ "No. 52923". The London Gazette. 15 May 1992. p. 8481.
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