Alan Burns, 4th Baron Inverclyde

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.

During the Second World War he served in France as a captain in the Scots Guards and as ADC to the General Officer Commanding Lines of Communication before being evacuated from St Nazaire.

[1] He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the newly formed 74th (City of Glasgow) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, in the Territorial Army on 11 January 1939, and held the position until 1944.

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.

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

[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.

She had been a well established star of revue and silent films, but gave up her showbusiness career on marriage, although this too was to end in divorce, in 1933.