Alan Burns, 4th Baron Inverclyde

John Alan Burns, 4th Baron Inverclyde of

KStJ (12 December 1897 – 17 June 1957) was a Scottish nobleman, the son of James, 3rd Lord Inverclyde

, and Charlotte Mary Emily (née Nugent-Dunbar).

Education

He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College in Berkshire.

Military career

Joining the

First World War. As a subaltern in the Scots Guards, he fought in France until wounded by a bullet through the palm of one hand. Gangrene impeded swift healing, but at last he was ready to return to the front and confided in a friend that if he had to die for it, he would try to win a decoration for gallantry in action to make his father proud of him. But instead of being sent overseas he was shunted into a 'cushy' job at the War Office

.

During the

St Nazaire.^[1]

He was appointed

Territorial Army on 11 January 1939, and held the position until 1944.^[2]^[3]

Inverclyde was on board the RMS Lancastria when she was sunk off St Nazaire on 17 June 1940. He was rescued by the crew of HMT Cambridgeshire, a 443-ton anti-submarine trawler, which had been requisitioned by the navy in August 1939; she was then given a 4-inch gun, machine guns and depth charges, she herself surviving the war and, after returning to peacetime trawling in 1945 as the Kingstone Sapphire, was scrapped in 1954.

After returning to England, Inverclyde presented each of his rescuers with a round rosewood box full of cigarettes, each box with an engraved silver plaque, each individually named and then given the wording "... HMS Cambridgeshire, St Nazaire to Plymouth, 17 to 19 June 1940, from a grateful passenger, Inverclyde/Scots Guards".

Burns succeeded as Lord Inverclyde on the death of his father on 16 August 1919, and inherited

Venerable Order of Saint John and admitted to the Royal Company of Archers

.

Post-military career

Not having inherited any business acumen from his immediate forebears, he eschewed the idea of taking an active role in the running of the Cunard Steamship Company and preferred instead the pleasant job of aide-de-camp to the Governor of Gibraltar, 1920–21. Inverclyde became a lieutenant in the Reserve of Officers, and in 1922 was Assistant Private Secretary, in an unpaid capacity, to the Secretary of State for Scotland.

After leaving his regiment, he retired into private life as master of Wemyss and man-about-town with a bachelor flat in Mayfair. He acquired hunters, a yacht, and a grouse moor.

During the winter he rode with the Eglinton in

British Sailors Society home, now used by the local authority's homeless persons unit. He was chairman of the British Sailors' Society in Scotland for 18 years.^[4]

He was awarded Commandeur Légion d'honneur, La Medaille de la Reconnaissance, La Médaille de la Ville de Nancy, honorary citizenship of the towns of Brest and Veulettes-sur-Mer, and an honorary doctorate of the University of Dijon.[1]

He was president of the Franco-Scottish Society (1949–54), chairman of Friends of France Council for Glasgow and West of Scotland (1942–57) and an honorary member of the Association of Française Libres.^[1]

Personal life

He married, firstly, Olive Sylvia Sainsbury, daughter of Arthur Sainsbury, millionaire owner of the J Sainsbury chain of grocery shops, on 23 November 1926. They divorced in Scotland in 1928. She went on to marry the racehorse trainer Captain James Townsend Pearce.^[5]

Secondly, he married

silent films, but gave up her showbusiness career on marriage, although this too was to end in divorce, in 1933.^{[citation needed}

]

Death

Inverclyde died on 17 June 1957, at the age of 59, without issue, the title becoming extinct on his death. The name Inverclyde was however resurrected in the early 1970s for the new

Scottish council area

.

Publications

Inverclyde published a memoir of two cruises: on the

Mediterranean

in 1929. Entitled Porpoises and People, it was published in 1930.

Bibliography

Lord Inverclyde, Porpoises and People, Halton & Truscott Smith 1930

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Burkes Illustrated Peerage. 1986. p. 639.
^ Monthly Army List.
^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 100th Edn, London, 1953.
^ "Centre offered warm welcome for sailors". Greenock Telegraph. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
^ "Captain James Townsend Pearce". Christ Church Oxford.
^ Greenock Telegraph editorial, 5 July 1973