Michael Maclagan

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Michael Maclagan, CVO, FSA, FRHistS (14 April 1914 London —13 August 2003 Oxford) was Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford for more than forty years and a long-serving officer of arms.

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[edit] Career

Educated at Winchester College and the University of Oxford, Maclagan was a member of the Officer Training Corps at both institutions.[1][2] With World War II already raging, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 16th/5th Lancers, Royal Armoured Corps on 10 February 1941.[3] He ultimately reached the rank of major.

He served both as a private officer of arms and at the College of Arms in London. He began his heraldic career in 1948 with an appointment as Slains Pursuivant of Arms, and held that office until 1970. This appointment was made by the Chief of the Name and Arms of Hay after the resurgence of private armorial officers following World War II. In 1953 Maclagan was made an Officer Brother of the Venerable Order of Saint John,[4] and served as a Gold Staff Officer at the Coronation and as a Green Staff Officer at the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. In 1970, he was appointed Portcullis Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms.[5] He held this post for 10 years until his promotion to the office of Richmond Herald of Arms in Ordinary on 14 July 1980.[6] Maclagan held this last office until his retirement in 1989[7] at the age of 75.

Maclagan is best known to students of royal and noble genealogies and royal families as the co-author of the book Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe (1981), reprinted as Lines of Succession (1984).

[edit] Family and royal ancestry

Michael Maclagan was the son of Sir Eric Robert Dalrymple Maclagan, KCVO, CBE (1879 London -14 September 1951), who was for many years director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Eric Maclagan had apparently been an intimate of novelist Edith Wharton.[8] He had been head of the British Ministry of Information bureau in Paris and was attached to the British Peace Delegation in 1919.[9]

Maclagan's mother, Helen Elizabeth Lascelles (10 October 1879-19 October 1942),[10] who married Sir Eric on 8 July 1913, was a granddaughter of the 4th Earl of Harewood; she was thus a sister of Sir Alan "Tommy" Lascelles, Private Secretary to King George VI and a second cousin once removed to the 7th Earl of Harewood who married Mary, Princess Royal, only daughter of King George V and sister to King George VI.[citation needed]

Maclagan's paternal grandfather was the Most Reverend William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York (1826- 1910) from 1891 to 1908, and the cleric who had crowned Queen Alexandra in 1902. His paternal grandmother, second wife of the Archbishop, was the Honourable Augusta Anne Barrington (1836-1915),[11] daughter of the 6th Viscount Barrington. (Augusta Maclagan had money settled upon her when she married Maclagan, then Bishop of Lichfield, in 1878; for the sources of this money and how it was invested, see this paper.[12] About half her money was settled upon her son Eric when he married in 1913. Thus, the Archbishop's wife, son and daughter-in-law all had independent means, necessary to preserve their social status.)

Through both his mother and his paternal grandmother, Maclagan thus had connections to several British aristocratic families[13] and through them, royal descent. The Honourable Augusta Maclagan was a great-granddaughter of the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne; thus making her grandson Michael Maclagan a distant kinsman to the Queen.

Maclagan was twice married. His first marriage in 1939 to a cousin Brenda Alexander was dissolved by divorce in 1946. His second marriage in 1949 to Jean Elizabeth Brooksbank Garnett lasted almost 54 years; she died 3 August 2003. He died ten days later on the day of her funeral. Maclagan had a son by his first marriage, and a son (deceased 1984) and two daughters by his second marriage.

[edit] Publications

Louda, Jiří and Michael Maclagan. Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1981. Reprinted as Lines of Succession (London: Orbis, 1984).

[edit] References

  1. ^ London Gazette: no. 34529, page 4408, 8 July 1938. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  2. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 35109, page 1589, 14 March 1941. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  3. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 35099, page 1429, 7 March 1941. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  4. ^ London Gazette: no. 39743, pages 94–95, 2 January 1953. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  5. ^ London Gazette: no. 45066, page 3415, 24 March 1970. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  6. ^ London Gazette: no. 48255, page 10239, 18 July 1980. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  7. ^ London Gazette: no. 51630, page 1187, 30 January 1989. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
  8. ^ Edith Wharton and the Faubourg Saint-Germain: the diary of the Abbe Mugnier | Twentieth Century Literature | Find Articles at BNET.com
  9. ^ Edith Wharton and the Faubourg Saint-Germain: the diary of the Abbe Mugnier | Twentieth Century Literature | Find Articles at BNET.com
  10. ^ Wombat's Family Forest - Family History and Genealogy
  11. ^ The peerage
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ Kittybrewster
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[edit] External links

[edit] See also