Abb Fab: The Mysterious ‘Lady of the Isles’ - Mairi Maxwell-Scott

You would think that once we move into the 20th century, women’s histories come into the open and cease being hidden. Think again. ‘Miss August’ is probably the most mysterious of our Women of Abbotsford. 

She is not a relation of Scott, but marries into the Maxwell-Scott family in 1918. She appears and disappears in barely seven years but leaves behind a precious legacy that proves crucial in preserving Abbotsford for the future.  

This elusive character is Mairi Richmond Macdougall, the first wife of Major General Walter Maxwell-Scott, Mary Monica’s eldest son and the first male heir to Abbotsford in over a century.  

Mairi’s life before her marriage has proven elusive and her back story remains intriguing. What do we know about her? Not much and mostly from her husband’s entries into the family diary. She was born in 1892 as Mary Richmond Macdougall but is later always known as Mairi.

The daughter of Colonel Stewart Macdougall of Lunga, near Ardfern, and Wilhelmina Liddell, the Macdougalls are one of the most ancient Argyllshire families who trace their lineage back to Somerled, the original ‘Lord of the Isles’. Lunga, the family seat, sits on the west coast, south of Oban, overlooking the islands of Jura and beyond, to the mountains of Mull.

Mairi is the third of four children, Iain the eldest and the only boy, fell in WW1 at the age of 21, just 10 months before his father, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Gordon Highlanders also died in France. Before the war, Mairi spent time in London, enjoying the season ‘under the wing of Mrs James Stewart of Backhouse’. From contemporary newspaper articles, we know she attended the London Gaelic Mod in 1913 and again in 1914, this time as a judge for singing and ‘playing the pianoforte’. She must have been musical.  

She and Walter became engaged in Sheringham, Norfolk, on 11 Feb 1918, as Walter notes in his diary ‘on the feast day of our Lady of Lourdes ’, which brings us to religion. Mairi converted to Catholicism in London in 1916. Is she preparing for marriage to Walter Maxwell-Scott? His was a strict Catholic family, and marriage to a non-Catholic would have been out of the question.  Did they already know each other then, or is this a coincidence? How they met is unknown; he was 18 years her senior, and the match seems a strange one. The available facts leave more questions than answers. They married on 17th March, only five weeks after their engagement.

A typical wartime marriage. The papers describe it as ”... a Scottish Union every way you take it”. Mairi, with her Highland roots and who calls herself Mairi not Mary, brings a distinct Caledonian flavour to the Maxwell-Scott’s.  

But it is also a military marriage. Britain is still at war. The honeymoon lasts only two days before Walter is ordered back to France, where Mairi joins him only occasionally for short periods. In March 1919, he is sent to Germany. Again, Mairi only visits. In December of the same year, Walter is posted to the Curragh, Ireland, where, finally, Mairi joins him permanently.

They stay until 1922. In March of 1921 their first daughter, Patricia Mary, is born. Shortly after they return from Ireland in 1923, Jean is born. We have charming images of Mairi with her young children.

 Here we see her smile. All her other photos are serious, almost sombre.

Her short, bobbed haircut, which is definitely a statement haircut in 1918, seems at odds with the rather conservative military family she has married into. She looks like an artist, not a military wife.

In April 1924, tragedy strikes. Walter is again posted to Germany, this time to Cologne, this time with his family in tow. The next entry in his diary simply reads :” October 9th: Mairi died at Cologne. I chartered a special British aeroplane and flew with the coffin from Cologne to Croydon where I was met by my brother Herbert and my sister in law Sheila “. Spartan, curt, and to the point. The death is reported widely in the press.

Patricia and Jean, at 2½ and only 15 months old, remain in Cologne. Mairi was 32. Another Woman of Abbotsford taken in her prime. More little girls losing their mother. A familiar story by now. Mairi's cause of death remains a mystery. She leaves behind her intriguing portraits, paintings of Lunga and, above all, two little girls, Patricia and Jean, who will go on to dedicate their lives to preserving Abbotsford for future generations.

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Next month, we will look at Mary Louise Maxwell-Scott.

Click here to read last month's Abb Fab post, where we dive into the life of Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott