THE DUCHESS OF
MONTROSE
VIOLET, Duchess of Montrose, is a daughter of Sir Frederick
Graham. Bart., of Netherby, in the old Debatable Land, and was married to the
Duke of Montrose in 1876. Her Grace counts among her ancestors the witty Richard
Brinsley Sheridan and his wife, the beautiful Miss Linley, and it was therefore
not without reason of more than one kind that she was one of the four duchesses
chosen to carry the canopy over Queen Alexandra at her coronation. The Duchess
devotes a large part of her time to the charitable enterprises of the West of
Scotland, and, with a gift of ready and graceful speech, she is in constant
request to countenance and commend works of philanthropy and benevolence.
Besides a nursing home of her own in Govan, she manages Mrs. Elder's Cottage
Hospital there, and assists in the management of the late Lady Campbell of
Garscube's Hospital for Permanently Invalided Soldiers at Maryhill. And during
the Boer War she was engaged busily in organising and administering the
invaluable help of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association. Her Grace
also built and carries on the Montrose Home at Balmaha, where all summer long by
thirty at a time poor city children are entertained for a fortnight each in the
sunny mountain air by Loch Lomondside.
Her Grace was made an LL.D. (honorary) of Glasgow University
in May, 1907.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)