Scotsman Obituaries: Andrew Wemyss, Fife laird who turned family coal company into a global venture

While Andrew may have picked his ancestors well enough that a silver spoon was never far from his mouth, the family fortune could well have been dissipated because of huge changes in trade, particularly coal.

Their lands in East Fife sat on vast coalfields exploited by the family from the 1500s, with Andrew’s grandfather Randolph Wemyss engaging in huge modernisation to the extent of creating Wemyss & District Tramways in 1906, a 3ft 6in-gauge town tramway that until 1932 connected Leven and Kirkcaldy with the Wemyss coalfields, giving direct access to local employment.

Alive to the decline in coal, from the 1960s Andrew Wemyss led a programme of diversification that stretched to sheep farming in Western Australia, tea plantations in Kenya and wines in Provence. Chairman of the family Wemyss Development Company for more than 30 years, he never forgot his roots, being deeply committed to his family, the local community, his staff, a local church and guardianship of a business that had sustained family and locality for centuries.

He was a direct descendant of Augusta FitzClarence, illegitimate daughter of King William IV who reigned for seven years until 1837. Second son of Michael Wemyss of that Ilk and chief of Wemyss, as well as being a distant cousin of the 13th Earl of Wemyss (chief of Charteris), Andrew’s maternal grandfather was the 6th Duke of Portland through his mother Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck. Victoria, in turn, was the last surviving goddaughter of Queen Victoria, after whom she was named.

At the coronation of King George VI in 1937, Andrew served as a page to his ducal grandfather – whose duties that day centred on carrying the crown of the new queen. Coincidentally, Queen Elizabeth was Andrew’s kinswoman, since her mother was a Cavendish-Bentinck. Further queenly connection occurred through his mother-in-law Alethea Abel-Smith, also kin.

The then ten-year-old Andrew and his mother Lady Victoria feature in a vintage snapshot print of August 1935 now held by the National Portrait Gallery in London and purchased through outside help in 2003. It was originally from the photo albums of Bloomsbury Group member Ottoline Morrell, also a Cavendish Bentinck.

Raised at Wemyss Castle, young Andrew was educated at Eton where he developed an interest in mechanics, building three boats in his time there. He followed family tradition in a military career, enlisting in the Scots Guards and being commissioned at 19 in early 1945.

Post-war, he served in West Germany and on the staff of the Transjordan Frontier Force before resigning in 1947 to concentrate on family business affairs. He proved one of just two surviving Scots Guards officers of his generation, the other being the 102-year-old Earl of Elgin.

He treated his place in East Fife society as a personal commitment that reflected his having been born and raised in the locality, establishing the Andrew Wemyss Charitable Trust to provide financial support to people and organisations in need, and particularly to assist employment initiatives for young people within the broader Wemyss area of Fife. It was said that he treated his father’s motto of “I Think” more in the fashion of “I Care”.

Having lived in London and worked abroad over the years, he returned to his roots in 1972, moving to Torrie House by Dunfermline, a large stylish late-18th century property.

For all his business credentials and devotion to East Fife and its people, Andrew Wemyss was not without humour and idiosyncrasy. An enthusiastic golfer – he was a long-time member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club – when in company, he urged playing by his own set of rules. To him, putting was a tiresome and tedious business, so first on the green was the winner.

His love of matters military never left him, and his wide range of reading included an insatiable interest in military history.

His wife Janet predeceased him, and he is survived by his children William and Isabella, and grandchildren.

Obituaries

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