Obituary: Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees; title-loving prince who found peace on isle of Great Bernera

Born: 13 January, 1925, in Cairo. Died: 23 June, 2012, in Stornoway, aged 87.

Born: 13 January, 1925, in Cairo. Died: 23 June, 2012, in Stornoway, aged 87.

COUNT Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees was the dashing figure whose colourful career lay at odds with his decision to adopt self-imposed exile on the island of Great Bernera, off Lewis. He encompassed lives as an army captain, herald, laird, count and prince, as well as aiding Ian Fleming in writing On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in which he is cast as the main character.

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This fluent linguist, international heraldic figure, one-time Lloyds’ “name”, property owner and castle restorer became revered in the Western Isles as a benevolent laird, who swapped a Paris flat for a croft, and was known to the 350 islanders on Great Bernera simply as “Robin”.

In spite of holding a Yugoslav royal title, attending the Queen as a herald at her coronation and being in direct descent of Louis Philippe I of France, he latterly became anti-monarchist. In a reference to his own princely title, he remarked, “Any old fool can be a prince, and in my case legitimately”, adding, “I’m quite a man of the people really”.

Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart de la Lanne-Mirrlees was born Robin Grinnell-Milne in Cairo, son of Captain Duncan Gribbell-Milne, a Great War pilot, and the Countess Frances de la Lanne. He initially changed his name when his mother later married another Great War hero, Major-General William Mirrlees. His second change of name occurred two decades ago.

Learned and outgoing, he was a born networker, whose godfather was the 11th Duke of Argyll. Educated at the English School of Cairo, in Paris and Merton College, Oxford, he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery and saw service in India. Passionate about heraldry, his career began in 1952 at the College of Arms in London as Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, being promoted to Richmond Herald. In later years, he was a regular at Edinburgh meetings of the Heraldry Society of Scotland.

In his 15 years at England’s centre of heraldry, he corresponded with Fleming, then researching On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond’s cover role was based on Mirrlees, the fictional spy having the title Sable Basilisk Pursuivant, suggested by Robin. Villain Stavro Blofeld also bears the “deformity” of having no ear lobes. Robin too was lobeless.

His friendship with Fleming resulted in a jointly written book, Sable Basilisk (1965), centring on Bond’s “genealogy”, with 007’s coat-of-arms on the cover and motto: “The World Is Not Enough”.

Critics accused Count Robin of basking in “flummery” – and he did love titles. That of count came through his mother’s line, recognised in 1964 by the Republic of San Marino. His claim to his princedom emanated in 1967 from the exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia, his “Prince of Coronata” covering islands off Dalmatia. Further titles followed: in 1975, he was recognised as Baron of Inchdrewer and Laird of Bernera. He was also a Knight of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.

In 2005, he began to assert his princely title, informing friends: “Maybe it will help me find a princess at my age”. His only marriage, at 45 to a nurse half his age, lasted less than a week.

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Robin proved a generous and witty host, enormously enjoying good company and stimulating conversation. In the early 1970s he restored Inchdrewer Castle near Banff, but never occupied the place. His purchase sight unseen in 1962 of Great Bernera off Lewis and his croft home there made him an adopted islander. He refused to raise rents, and donated land for community use. Three years ago when in a care home on Great Bernera, he and the only other resident faced being made to move by Western Isles Council; the pair retained their residency through becoming “tenants”.

The Lloyds crash of the early 1990s almost ruined him but Count Robin paid off more than £2 million in debts after “a property clear-out”. He lost his house in Holland Park, London, chateau in France, flats in Paris and Switzerland, and Ratzenegg Castle in Austria, yet good humouredly, joined the Lottery syndicate on his beloved Bernera.

He is survived by Patrick de la Lanne,, his natural son through his relationship with Margarethe, Duchess of Wurttemberg; and three grandchildren.

GORDON CASELY

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