Sir Angus James Bruce Ogilvy (14th September 1928 – 26th December 2004) was married to the British Princess Alexandra of Kent, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth. He was the son of David, 12th Earl of Airlie (who was made Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth (later The Queen Mother) in 1937 and was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Thistle in 1956) and his wife, Lady Alexandra, née Coke, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Leicester. The Ogilvy family has close ties to the UK Royal Family. Angus’s brother, David, was page boy to his father at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937 and, with HM The Queen, is one of the last surviving participants.
Angus married Princess Alexandra of Kent on 24th April 1963 in Westminster Abbey, London. (I had just been born 19 days earlier and my Mother always remembered that this was the first event we ‘witnessed' together on television. In fact, we were two of an estimated two hundred million people worldwide watching the event.) The Queen had offered Angus an earldom, but he declined and so his children were not given titles. He also turned down a grace-and-favour apartment in one of the royal palaces and, instead, rented Thatched House Lodge in Richmond upon Thames on the Crown Estate, where his widow still lives. Princess Alexandra kept her apartment at St. James's Palace.
Alexandra and Angus had two children - James (born on Leap Day 29th February 1964) and Marina (born 31st July 1966). Marina caused a major scandal in 1989 when she became pregnant by her freelance photographer boyfriend Paul Mowatt, as well as criticising her family in the British media. Marina and Paul were married a year later. Besides Alexandra and Angus, no members of the Royal Family were present. The couple divorced in 1997.
Angus was created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 31st December 1988, when he became Sir Angus, and in the 1997 New Year Honours he was made a Privy Counsellor, making him Right Honourable instead of the plain ‘Honourable’ he had been born with.
After serving in the Army and attending university in Oxford, Angus became a successful businessman. The last company he worked for was Lonrho and Angus’s career came to an end when that company became involved in a major scandal which the then Prime Minister spoke about negatively. Sir Angus resigned. He then became involved in charity work, particularly the Imperial Cancer Research Fund for which he served as President.
Unfortunately, and quite prophetically, Sir Angus died of throat cancer on 26th December 2004, the day after his wife’s 68th birthday. His funeral was on 5th January 2005 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Sir Angus Ogilvy is of heraldic interest because, as the son of an Earl, he was already armigerous and his Arms are shown here. They are blazonned as follows: SHIELD: Argent, a Lion passant guardant gules, crowned with an Imperial Crown and collared with an open one proper. A Crescent azure for difference. Firstly, as the second son, Sir Angus's Shield was assigned a Crescent (in the chosen colour of blue). This is according to the English tradition of Cadency marks to differentiate between brothers. This is strange as the Earldom of Airlie and, of course, the Clan Ogilvy, which shares the Crest, are Scottish and Scotland has a different system of Cadency. Also, the Motto A Fin is placed at the top of the Arms in the Scottish fashion instead of the otherwise usual way of under the Shield. This difference is more than merely visual, however. In Scottish heraldry mottoes are considered a component of the Grant of Arms and can be altered only by re-matriculating the Arms. In English heraldry, while a motto is usually illustrated in the Patent of Arms, it is, with very rare exceptions, not included in the actual Grant. Consequently, English mottoes may be changed at will. |
In 2007 I wrote to the households of a number of what the press rather disparagingly call 'Minor Royals' to confirm their Coats of Arms. I was informed by Princess Alexandra's Secretary that HRH's children do not have Arms. This technically incorrect as they could inherit their father's. They just haven't registered them.