New DL

APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTY LIEUTENANT

Mr Gawn Rowan-Hamilton, Lord-Lieutenant of County Down, has been pleased to appoint:-

Colonel John William Rollins MBE

Crawfordsburn, 

County Down

To be a Deputy Lieutenant of the County his Commission bearing date the 23rd day of May 2022


Signed: Gawn Rowan-Hamilton

Lord-Lieutenant of the County

Wodehouse Knighthood

A fellow National Trust volunteer of mine contacted me in 2020, cognizant of my esteem for Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, and their creator, Sir P G Wodehouse, KBE.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Robin sent me a cutting from The Times newspaper concerning the death of the Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, GCB, CVO, a very distinguished civil servant who served as Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to two Prime Ministers, viz. Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.

Lord Armstrong was also the Cabinet Secretary, from 1979 until 1987, during which period Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister.

While Wodehouse was in hospital in 1974, Armstrong, PPS to Harold Wilson at the time, persuaded the Prime Minister to 'fast-track' a knighthood for him.

Insignia: Knight Commander of the
Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

In this case the honour was Knight Commander of the British Empire ~ KBE.

So in the New Year Honours List of 1975, P G Wodehouse was appointed KBE, a mere six weeks before his death.

First published in April, 2020.

Melissa Hamilton

MELISSA HAMILTON IS A FIRST SOLOIST WITH THE ROYAL BALLET

Born at Belfast and having spent her childhood in Dromore, County Down, Melissa trained at the Jennifer Bullick School of Ballet in Lisburn, County Antrim.

Here is a two-minute clip of Melissa giving a short interview.

Aged 16, she joined Elmhurst School For Dance, where she was taught by Masha Mukhamedov who, after she left the school, trained her privately.

She won the Youth America Grand Prix in 2007.

Melissa won the 2009 Critics Circle ‘Most Outstanding Female Performance’ Award and was nominated for the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Show Awards.

In 2009, she was ranked by The Sunday Times as one of the ‘Top 30 Power Players under 30’.

She has been described as British ballet's brightest hope.

Melissa, who comes from Dromore, County Down, admits her rise to the top was not a "straight line":

"I left home at 16 and trained in England for two years and then gave up school in Birmingham and moved and trained privately with a teacher in Athens for 10 months and then I joined the Royal Ballet Company," she said.

Meeting her teacher Masha Mukhamedov was the tipping point:

"Previous to that I kept being told I would never make it," she said. "That is why I left my school in Birmingham because some people don't have an eye, some people are unable to look at something in front of them and see the potential."

"It was whenever I met my teacher, she literally saw me for two seconds and said that she's a ballerina and she completely took me under her wing and I'm a product of her."

The life and hours of a ballerina are relentless:

"You sell your soul to your vocation. I call it a vocation, it is not a job, it's a complete lifestyle," she said. "It is incredibly hard. Our hours are incredible, I mean we start our days at half past nine, if we have a show we don't finish until half past ten, we're not home until after 11 and then we're straight in the next day to do the same thing."

"We rehearse all throughout the day. We finish rehearsals at half past five and then start into getting ready for our performance at half past seven."

 First published in December, 2011.

The Turing Baronets

This ancient family came originally to Scotland from France, and was settled in the county of Angus, in a barony called Turin, where they lived for several generations. The Turins appear, however, to have removed into Aberdeenshire about the beginning of the 14th century, as we find ADAM TURYN, or TURIN, mentioned in the reign of King ROBERT THE BRUCE, among the number "nobilium virorum ibidem existencium." 

His son, or nearest descendant, WILLIAM TURYN, having attached himself to the fortunes of DAVID II, King of Scotland, and shared that sovereign's exile, and having subsequently returned to Scotland in 1342, was in requital for his services and loyalty, invested with the barony of Foveran, or Foverne, in Aberdeenshire, which estate was held by his descendants for the space of three centuries, from father to son.

SIR WILLIAM TURING OF FOVERAN, son of Robert Turing of Foveran, was father of

JOHN;

Henry, ancestor of the 3rd Baronet.

The elder son,

JOHN TURING OF FOVERAN, wedded, in 1624, Barbara, daughter of George Gordon of Gight, and had issue,

GEORGE TURING, m, in 1652, Margaret Forbes.

At the time of the rebellion in the reign of CHARLES I, King of Scotland, JOHN TURING, the laird of Foveran, having, both by reason of consanguinity (his wife, the Lady of Foveran, a daughter of Gordon of Gight), as well as from community of faith, warmly espoused the cause, raised and maintained at his own expense a body of horse under the banner of his illustrious relative, the Marquess of Huntly.

This John Turing of Foveran, in acknowledgment of his aforementioned services, was created a baronet in 1638, designated of Foveran.

He was succeeded by his grandson,

SIR JOHN TURING, 2nd Baronet, who sold the family estate, and died unmarried in 1682.

Sir John was succeeded by his grandnephew,

THE REV SIR JOHN TURING, 3rd Baronet (1680-1733), Minister of Drumblade, Aberdeenshire, 1703-33, who married, in 1700, Jean, daughter of the Rev John Dunbar, and had issue,

ALEXANDER, his successor;

Robert;

Helen.

Sir John was succeeded by his elder son,

SIR ALEXANDER TURING, 4th Baronet (1702-82), who wedded, in 1740, Anna Brown, and had issue,

John, b 1742;

INGLIS, his successor;

ROBERT, succeeded his brother as 6th Baronet;

Arthur James.

Sir Alexander was succeeded by his elder son,

THE REV SIR INGLIS TURING, 5th Baronet (1743-91), Rector of St Thomas in the Vale, Jamaica, who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his brother,

SIR ROBERT TURING, 6th Baronet (1745-1831), who wedded, in 1797, Anne, daughter of Colonel Donald Campbell, and had issue, two daughters,

Anna Amelia; Mary.

Sir Robert died without male issue, when the title reverted to his great-grandnephew,

SIR JAMES HENRY TURING, 7th Baronet (1791-1860), of Foveran, Aberdeenshire, who married, in 1821, Antoinette, second daughter of Sir Alexander Ferrier, Conservator of Scottish Privileges, consul at Rotterdam, and had issue,

John Alexander, died in infancy;

James Henry (1824-36);

ROBERT FRASER, his successor;

Alexander;

Edward;

Henry;

Antoinette Margaret Campbell; Salvadora Mary; Eliza; Amelia Ridley; Grace; Ellen; Isabella; Catherine.

Sir James was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

SIR ROBERT FRASER TURING, 8th Baronet (1827-1913), HM Consul at Rotterdam, who wedded firstly, in 1853, Catherine Georgiana, daughter of Walter Stevenson Davidson, and had issue,

JAMES WALTER, his successor;

Catherine Antoinette; Blanche Amelia; Florence Ellen; Julia.

He espoused secondly, in 1906, Ethel Sophia, daughter of the Rev George Perry Ayscough.

Sir Robert was succeeded by his only son,

SIR WALTER JAMES TURING, 9th Baronet (1862-1928), who espoused, in 1891, Mabel Rose, daughter of Andrew Caldecott, and had issue,

ROBERT ANDREW HENRY, his successor;

JOHN LESLIE, succeeded his brother as 11th Baronet.

Sir Walter was succeeded by his elder son,

SIR ROBERT ANDREW TURING, 10th Baronet (1895-1970), Captain, Reserve Officers, Rifle Brigade, who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his twin brother,

SIR JOHN LESLIE TURING, 11th Baronet (1895-1987), MC, Lieutenant, Seaforth Highlanders, who married, in 1975, Irene Nina, daughter of Trevor John Tatham, though the marriage was without issue, and the title reverted to his great-great-grandnephew, 

SIR (JOHN) DERMOT TURING, 12th Baronet (1961-), who married, in 1986, Nicola Jane, daughter of Malcolm Douglas Simmonds, and has issue,

John Malcolm Ferrier;

James Robert Edward.

ALAN MATHISON TURING OBE (1912-54) was an uncle of the 12th Baronet and descendant of the 1st Baronet.