02-Nov-2012

Our Annual General Meeting and autumn dinner were held on Friday, 2nd November 2012, at the Caledonian Club in Halkin Street, London SW1.

Draft Minutes of the AGM will be made available shortly on our Members only page. The Minutes of last year's AGM and the accounts for the year ended 31st July 2012 were both approved and are now available on that page.

80 guests attended the dinner that followed, including the Chief, Lady Maclean (Rosie) and Elizabeth, Lady Maclean. Lady Maclean was particularly welcome, as this was the first time that she had attended an event of this Association. In his speech, the Chief brought us up to date with the goings-on of the members of his family and reported on the International Gathering at Duart in June.

Our Guest of Honour was Lord Patten, Chairman of the BBC Trust, Chancellor of Oxford University, former Cabinet Minister in the Thatcher and Major governments, former Vice President of the European Commission for External Affairs and the last Governor of Hong Kong. The Pattens are a long-standing sept of the Clan Maclean.

Lord Patten spoke on the subject of ‘Identity, Loyalty and the Politics of the 21st Century’. He discussed these in the context of a world today in which increasingly problems have to be resolved by international cooperation. He did not believe that loyalty to one's country and international cooperation were mutually exclusive. In particular, in a world in which politics, religion, ethnicity and differences in standards of living were dangerously divisive, he believed that clans played an important bridging role.

Following his prepared speech he generously agreed to take questions on any subject. This elicited some excellent questions, which he answered at length and without reservation, about the personal philosophy which has underpinned his career choices, his view of various global issues – notably what he saw as the three most important concerns, being global warming, lack of international cooperation and social inequality - and of course his attitude towards Europe, which was actually much more nuanced and critical than those who label him a Euro-fanatic would have expected.

This was a privileged opportunity to listen to one of the foremost political figures of our time and those who were present counted themselves fortunate. It was a fascinating and memorable evening.

Oct-Nov 2012

An exhibition of pictures by Bruce McLean took place at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery at 6 Cork Street, London W1 from 10th October until 10th November 2013.

Bruce McLean was also featured in an exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Brindleyplace, Birmingham, forming part of the Gallery's Autumn Almanac: The Voice and the Lens, which took place from 8th to 11th November 2012.

An exhibition of works by Peter McLane was held at the Light Gallery, 5A Porchester Place, London W2, near Marble Arch, during 3rd – 17th November 2012. Peter began his career as a singer, during which he represented Monaco in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest, and then turned to digital painting.

July-Nov 2012

An exhibition "Shakespeare: staging the world" was held at the British Museum from 19th July to 25th November 2012. This provided a rare opportunity to see the magnificent Lochbuie Brooch.

This silver, pearl and rock crystal brooch was probably made on the Loch Buy [as then was] Estate in the late 16th century. The inscription on the reverse reads: "The Silver Oar of this Broch was found on the Estate of Lochbuy in Mull and made by a Tinker on that Estate about the year 1500. It was handed down by the Ladies of that family to one another untill Anna Campbell lady to Murdock McLean who had no Male Issue, gave it to Isabella McLean, their daughter, spouse to John Scrogie, Esq, to whom she presented it the day after their Marriage."

Photographs of the brooch may be seen on the British Museum's website here. Its place in the exhibition was possibly linked to the “Scottish Play”, which would have been wholly appropriate, as Macbeth is buried on Iona close to several Maclean Chiefs.

June 2012

Other photographs, taken by the official photographer for the Gathering, may be seen at, and are available for purchase from, http://www.photoboxgallery.com/.

The group photograph above is not available from the above websites. It was taken by Shane Winter from Los Angeles, who has kindly agreed that it can be down-loaded from this page. Click on the photo to see a slightly enlarged version.

03-Feb-2012

On Friday 3rd February 2012 we held our annual Burns Night Supper at the Caledonian Club, in co-operation with The Stewart Society for the second year running. 89 people attended, one of our highest ever attendances.

The Stewarts were represented not only by the Chairman of The Stewart Society in London, Jamie Stewart, who did us proud last year in his Immortal Memory speech, arm in sling straight from an operation, but also by Robert Stewart of Blackhouse, President of The Stewart Society worldwide, of which H M The Queen is the Head.

Bobby Stewart recalled his first meeting with our Patron. “About 45 years ago I had occasion to pick up her daughter Janet, the ‘Maid’ [the eldest daughter of Duart having the charming courtesy title of the Maid of Morvern]. Her father was Lord Chamberlain at the time, hence the grand London address. I leant urgently about three times on the bell at the St James’s Palace side entrance, when at length the door was opened by a formidable-looking lady. Rather startled, I asked if she was staff or the Lady Maclean. “Both” she replied crisply “and you’re late, Mr Stewart!”. Thankfully we’ve got on famously ever since.”

Jamie Stewart addressed the Haggis with great panache and a large dirk, sharing alternate verses of the eight, “so as to vary the pace”, with contributions by Malcolm Maclean, Younger of Duart and Morvern, Bobby Stewart of Blackhouse, and Hew Dundas (a Maclean of Ardgour).

We were fortunate to have Lord (Sandy) Leitch, a sept of Clan Maclean, to hold us in stitches with a series of jokes, including at the President’s expense: “By the way, I would like to thank my dear friend Nicolas Maclean for the invaluable advice he gave me on how I should approach my speech this evening. “Sandy” he said, “Don’t try to be witty or intellectual. Just try to be yourself!”.

Lord Leitch is Deputy Chairman of Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Chairman of BUPA, Scottish Widows and several other companies, but his angle on Robert Burns was to look at his humble origins, being himself like Burns the son of a ploughman, who had also worked as a coalminer in Fife. Lord Leitch paid a moving tribute to Burns as a man of the people and then moved on to the breadth and width of Burns’s impact globally, 216 years after his death.

Lord Leitch had just returned from Davos, where a senior Kazakh politician had been telling him of Burns Night this year in Almaty. The international aspect of Burns was well represented in the Caledonian Club on this night with guests from Canada, Serbia, Armenia, Germany, Australia, Japan, Iran, the USA, Russia, France, India, and several more including the European President of the Hell’s Angels, another Maclean. “Burns embraced the full horizontal and raised the “cup o’ kindness” “that man to man the world o’er shall brothers be for a’ that.”

Jamie Maclean, Sir Fitzroy’s son, then drew deeply but respectably from his wealth of experience as the Editor of “The Erotic Review” in order to toast the Lassies. His wife Sarah had given him carte blanche by not attending the dinner, but he did not abuse his freedom. “So now it falls to me to reassure Scottish womanhood that we Scotsmen are worthy of their love. I’m not sure that I’m really up to the task, but I’ll do my best!”.

Jamie rose to the occasion with revelations of his early explorations with Big Morag, following Burns’ example, to his successful efforts to keep at bay Calvin, Knox and the “monstrous regiment” of Scottish Women Against Pornography. He ended with a lesser-known but very sexy poem by Burns: “Super is’na Ready”.

Caroline de Klee responded in a vigorous and lively way for the Lassies, ending with an innovative Toast to the Laddies! In this centenary year of the re-possession of Duart by Clan Maclean, we were particularly pleased to have one of the Burns Night speeches by a representative of the family which had sold the Duart Peninsula and its then ruined castle back to the Macleans of Duart.

Caroline’s husband is descended from the Guthries of Torosay and accompanied her at this Burns Night Supper. We all regretted that a hundred years after the Macleans of Duart became neighbours of the Guthries of Torosay, Torosay Castle was itself up for sale - the end of an era on Mull and of a great tourist attraction that has complemented Duart Castle and its surroundings across the bay.

After the speeches our traditional musical medley was as great a success as ever, first with Andrew Maclean’s inspiring and rousing “War-song of the Macleans”, then our piper Roderick’s reprise of popular pipe tunes, including a special tribute to Torosay, and finally David Dunham on the melodeon with James Arber on the guitar.

Bobby Stewart of Blackhouse and Malcolm Maclean Younger of Duart and Morvern then closed the evening with speeches of warmest appreciation, especially to the evening’s main organizer, our Hon. Secretary Helen Bailey.

Finally, Rod led us in an enthusiastic “Auld Lang Syne” and we all reluctantly began to head for home.

19-Jan-2012

On 19th January 2012 it was Maclean Night at the 606 Club in Lots Road, Chelsea, one of London's premier jazz clubs. The Benet McLean Band was performing and Nigel Alington took a party of Macleans and friends to listen. The music was be-bop/hip-hop, much of it composed by Benet himself, including an up-to-the minute jazz version of Fauré's Pavane!

Apart from Benet on piano and vocals, the other band members were Jason Yarde on sax, Ben Hazleton on bass and Saleem Raman on drums. The virtuosity of all of them was stunning.

It was a great evening. Check out Benet's website (www.benetmclean.com) and try to catch one of his gigs.