07-Oct-11

Our Annual General Meeting and autumn dinner were held on Friday, 7th October 2011 at the Caledonian Club in Halkin Street, London SW1.

Draft Minutes of the AGM can be viewed via our Members only page here.

At the dinner which followed, our guest of honour was The Very Rev. Allan Maclean of Dochgarroch, President of the Clan Maclean Association in Scotland, former Chairman of the Clan Maclean Heritage Trust and principal organiser of the International Gathering to be held on the Isle of Mull during June 2012 (see below). He spoke about the first International Gathering in 1912 and outlined the plans for the centenary Gathering next year. His talk included the impressive feat of summarising 600 years of Maclean history in three minutes!

We also welcomed Cherry and Norman Frizzell, representing the Clan Chattan Association, of which Allan Maclean is a Vice-President. For further information about this association of clans, see here. Other speakers included Elizabeth, Lady Maclean, our Patron, who brought us up to date with news of her family, and Nigel Alington, who outlined ideas for co-operation with two charities who help needy Scots in London (see Macleans in need below).

17-Jun-11

On 18th June 2015 a huge bicentennial commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo will take place, with tens of thousands of “re-enactors” wearing period uniform or civilian dress. It will be a great occasion but very crowded. So on 18th June 2011, as part of a three-day visit, members of Clan Maclean and its Septs, led by our President, Nicolas Maclean of Pennycross, held their own commemoration of the Clan’s involvement with the historic campaign that brought peace to North Western Europe for 99 years.

The party was guided throughout by Alasdair White, President of MacleanNet. Alasdair and his wife, Fiona, live in a farmhouse only a few minutes from the cross-roads, Quatre Bras, and within earshot of cannon at Waterloo. Alasdair is a very experienced Waterloo Battlefield Guide and a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society. He is also a specialist on the aspects of the topography and vegetation that are so crucial to an understanding of the course and outcome of the Battle of Waterloo.

A Maclean of Pennycross by descent, Alasdair not only shared with the group the general excitement, drama, heroism and tragedy of the campaign but made it more personal by focusing on the story of three Macleans who fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, two of them brothers. The historian, Major Nicholas Maclean-Bristol, and his wife, Lavinia, joined the visit and shared some of their own family links with the campaign, as well as stories of Macleans from Coll, most in the British army but including several who fought in the French and Dutch armies, their families having emigrated after the crushing of the ‘45. Lavinia’s great-great-grandmother was present at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels attended by Wellington and his officers on 15th June, on the eve of Quatre Bras. Others on the trip were able to tell their own stories.

The visit began on Friday, 17th June, with a delicious dinner at Le Bivouac de Napoleon next to the actual centre of Wellington’s lines, where the Macleans held their own against a crowd of uniformed French “re-enactors”, including Grognards of Napoleon’s Old Guard, at least one Marshal, and Napoleon’s secretary.

Saturday, 18th June, started with a visit to Quatre Bras. Alasdair took the party to the key points of the battle, showing the main monuments, including a new monument listing all British regiments which took part by their names in 1815 and their current names. The younger Maclean of Pennycross brother, Charles, carried the colours for the 79th Regiment of the Line, the Cameron Highlanders, whose particular valour was highlighted by Wellington in his first dispatch after Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Then Alasdair guided the party through the narrow streets of Genappe, through which the Allied army made a tactical withdrawal to the defensive position Wellington had identified years earlier at Waterloo. This withdrawal was covered by allied cavalry, including the 13th Light Dragoons, in which Allan Thomas Maclean, Charles’s elder brother, was an officer

The rest of the day was spent walking around the site of the Battle of Waterloo, described in detail by Alasdair and replayed by several thousand re-enactors, including the Light Dragoons among whom Allan Thomas Maclean had again played an active role. There too were the 73rd Foot, with whom the elderly John Maclaine, son of Gillean Maclaine of Scallasdale, had served at Waterloo as a major.

The final day was occupied by visits to Wellington's headquarters, now a small museum, and the Royal Chapel at Waterloo, followed by the main cemetery in Brussels at Evere, where stands the principal British memorial to those who fell at Waterloo. A crypt contains the remains of 15 of the most senior British officers to die at Waterloo, among them John Maclaine, who had been cut in two by a cannonball at the height of the battle.

The party returned with a deep respect for the courage and endurance of the men from all sides who took part in those historic events nearly two hundred years ago. Charles Maclean died in Calcutta in 1832. Allan Thomas went on to become a General and sponsored the later Sir Fitzroy Maclean of Duart and Morvern to take a commission in his regiment, the 13th Light Dragoons. We remember also Major John Maclaine and the many Macleans in the ranks who fell in the campaign. In Wellington’s words “Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.”

March-June 2011

A retrospective exhibition of works by Will Maclean took place from 8th March to 4th June 2011 at the Fleming Gallery in Berkeley Street, London W1. Will Maclean is internationally recognized as a foremost exponent of box construction art. The exhibition was held to mark his 70th birthday. Further information about the artist can be found here.

An exhibition called Lead and Line, featuring new works by Will Maclean, was also held at the Art First Gallery in Eastcastle Street, London W1, from 5th May until 18th June 2011.

11-Mar-11

On 11th March 2011 a Reception was held at the Special Forces Club in London to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Sir Fitzroy Maclean. He was the first President of this Association in 1953 (when it was called the London & District Branch of the Clan Maclean Association), before becoming the President of the Clan Maclean Association in Scotland, a position he held for almost 40 years until his death in 1996.

Sir Fitzroy was one of the most illustrious, as well as being one of the most colourful, figures in the history of the Clan Maclean. He was originally a diplomat, first in Paris and then in Moscow. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he resigned from the Foreign Office and joined the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders as a Private. Within 3 years he was a Brigadier, eventually rising to become a Major-General in 1947. During the war he operated with the SAS in Northern Africa. In 1943 he was sent by Churchill to Yugoslavia, which began his long relationship with that country. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament, first for Lancaster and then for Bute and North Ayrshire. He wrote numerous books of history and biographies, the most well-known being his own autobiography Eastern Approaches. He has often been named as one of the models for 007, James Bond.

Among the distinguished guests at this event were the Croatian Ambassador, Dr Ivica Tomic; the Deputy Head of Mission at the Serbian Embassy, Mr Branimir Filipovic; and the Chargé d'Affaires at the Montenegrin Embassy, Ms Marijana Živkovic. Elizabeth, The Lady Maclean, our Patron, also attended.

Talks were given by Jamie Maclean, Fitzroy's younger son, and by Nicolas Maclean, our President. Jamie gave a riveting, and at the same time affectionate and humorous, account (see here) of his father's life. A wonderful tribute to Sir Fitzroy (see here), written for the occasion by his publisher, Bato Tomaševic, a former Yugoslav partisan, was read out by Nicolas. Nigel Alington gave the vote of thanks.

The evening was hugely enjoyed by a capacity audience, which included members from France and Hong Kong.

11-Feb-11

On Friday, 11th February 2011, 65 Macleans and friends, together with members of the Stewart Society whom we had invited to join us this year, attended our annual Burns Supper in the Caledonian Club in Halkin Street, London SW1. Among the Macleans who attended were our Patron, Elizabeth, The Lady Maclean; Nicolas Maclean of Pennycross, President of our Association, and his wife Qamar; Nigel Alington, Vice-President of the Association; Mary Wilson, Honorary Vice-President; Jenny, Susan and Caroline, daughters of the late Dr John McLean; Briony Maclean and her family; and Paul and Bev Maclean and their family. We also welcomed David McLean, son of the internationally renowned typographic designer Ruari McLean, and Maureen McLean from Seattle, to their first Burns Supper with us. The guests included Ranjit Mathrani, High Sheriff of Greater London, and his wife Namita Panjabi, Alan McLean, President of the Clan Maclean Association of France, with his wife Elizabeth, Colonel Darko and Mrs Branka Perisic from the Serbian Embassy and many others. The evening was a huge success and much enjoyed by all.

Patrick Watson addressed the haggis with great gusto. Jamie Stewart, Chairman of the London District of The Stewart Society, attending with his wife Isa, gave the Toast to the Immortal Memory. Roddy Gow, a godson of the late Lord Maclean, father of the current Chief, responded with the Toast to the Lassies. Philippa MacLean-Watt's humorous reply left the men better informed about what lassies mean, if not about what they want.

Music was supplied by our piper, Rod McFadyen; Andrew Maclean, who sang the War Song of the Macleans; his sister Iona, a professional soul singer whose new record is due out in the UK in June, who sang My love is like a red, red rose and one of her own songs; and David Dunham and James Arber, playing the melodeon and guitar respectively. The evening ended with everyone singing Loch Lomond, the Skye Boat Song and Auld Lang Syne.