27212

Generation: D

William McLellan, III

Marjorie Holt

Children:

• Moira McLellan
• Iain Campbell McLellan

May be "Marjory".

Bill McLellan, letter to RLM and MBM, 14July1969:

We had a most unexpected and delightful experience on Saturday last. You know I have been trying hard for some years now to get in touch with cousin Willie McLellan. Well after trying twice to get him on the phone without success, we decided to go and have a look at his domicile. It lies a long way back from a main road, and quite difficult to find, in a 'stockbroker belt', private roads and an air of '"leave us alone".

Of course I needs must go to have a look as I saw wood smoke coming from the garden; here in the garden clipping a yew hedge was a man of about 70, stripped to the waist and as brown as a berry. I hailed him and asked him if he were Willie McLellan and when he said yes he was, asked who I was, and on telling him, he said "You must be James' son", and so the ice was broken.

He is a lively medium height fellow with a fringe of white hair, rather a round head, and a most pronounced Glasgow accent. Well of course we had to go in and his first remark was "Well, of course, drink was the trouble with this family, and if I were you I would let sleeping dogs lie, the McLellans aren't a very nice family".

Talk went on and his wife arrived, both had changed and were on their best behaviour, but soon Willie's blunt sense of humour obtruded , and quite frankly I don't think I have ever been so amused, and relaxed with any member of our family before. We got the story of his life, starting in a solicitors office at the age of 13 years, and how he in his Glasgow days with his father had been in 34 different homes. He became Secretary of the Royal Insurance Co., in London and some 35 years ago retired, and was and is financial adviser to Lord Fraser, Director of Harrods, on the Board of Governors of Guy's Hospital, and has an insurance brokers business in Glasgow, J & W McLellan, & Co.

We thoroughly enjoyed this quite unaffected little man and his charming wife. His eyes sparkle all the time he is talking, and he without being boastful told how he could have been a millionaire but decided that life was to be enjoyed, and not to screw you into the ground. We inspected all the family treasures and learned of their children. The eldest, Moira, is a surgeon and married to Professor Batchelor, the leader of the heart transplant team with Donald Ross, etc. The son Ian is also a doctor with a practice in Lancaster, and was at Cambridge at the same time as Rogan, and about the same age.

I have borrowed an old document issued to our Gread Great Grandfather, John McLellan, accepting him as a Guild Brother and Burgess of the City of Glasgow, and presented to him on joining the Glasgow Regiment of Volunteers, dated 1778. I am trying to get copies. The original was on display in the Art Galleries for some ten years, as a precious bit of old Glasgow's records.

New time you are down I have told him I am bringing you down to see him. I am meeting him in the Caledonian Club on Wednesday, when he said he will give me more details of this awful family.

MBM:

William McLellan III we once visited with Cora and Bill in their lovely home. He was employed by the Royal Insurance Co. London and became a financial advisor to Hugh Fraser of Harrods and House of Fraser, and a member of the board of Guy's Hospital. William had two offspring, a son practising as a G.P. in Lancaster and a daughter married to a surgeon.