Biography

James Angus Graham, the 7th Duke of Montrose, was known to the Gaels as Aonghas Mòr. Born the 2nd of May 1907, he was educated at Eton and Oxford but learned Gaelic at a young age.

Christina MacDonald, the poetess and mother of Donnie 'Large' MacDonald, worked for duke's family in Drymen. She was the nanny for the family, looking after their two children, Fiona and James Angus. She taught them both Gaelic. Christina spoke about this on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal on the 30th of June, 1978: "Their parents were interested in Gaelic, and I believe they helped me to take a greater interest in Gaelic myself." She spent over three years with the family, and each year during the summer months, she would go with the family to their second home, Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran.

As a student, Angus developed an interest in politics. He had a farm in Rhodesia and was a Member of Parliament there when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland split. When Rhodesia declared independence on the 11th of November 1965, Montrose was among the names on the paper. He served in John Smith's government as Minister of Agriculture and later Minister of Defence. After disagreements between himself and Smith concerning negotiations between South African and Rhodesian governments on black people's status in Rhodesia, he resigned and moved his family to South Africa in 1979.

Angus Graham is described in a letter by Duncan Livingstone from Pretoria in Gairm, 12/09/1959:

"The Royal Scottish Fair was held in Johannesburg a week ago and was opened by the Duke of Montrose. I was unable to be present. But on Sunday evening a reception was held for him and his wife, and I was approached by messengers and dragged to it, willing or not, because I was able to speak Gaelic, which the duke is so fond of, and which none of the members of the Caledonian Society are able to speak. But I was not entirely alone; John MacDonald of Bulawayo was present, a good Lewisman. Aonghas Mòr, i.e. the duke, is as good and fluent in Gaelic as we are, and, my soul to God (as the people of Glencoe say), we stole the show. Aonghas Mòr has a head full of great songs, and he is good at singing. The company heard more Gaelic than they had ever heard before. The duchess isn't a Gael. Her surname is Semple. But her ancestors were on the right side of the Rebellion and at Culloden. She was born in Kenya but she sings in Gaelic, although she cannot speak it much."

Angus married twice, first to Isobel Sellar and then Susan Semple. They eventually returned to Scotland and when he died on the 10th of February 1992, he was buried in his family's cemetery near Loch Lomond.