David Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry

David Harrington Angus Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry (born 19 December 1929) is a Scottish nobleman.

Queensberry is the elder son of the 11th Marquess, and his only son by his second wife, artist Cathleen Sabine Mann (married 1926, divorced 1946). His maternal grandparents were the British interior decorator Dolly Mann (née Florence Sabine-Pasley) and the British artist Harrington Mann.

He succeeded his father in 1954.

Career

Educated at Eton College, he served in the Royal Horse Guards. In the 1950s he worked in the pottery industry.^[1] He was Professor of Ceramics at the Royal College of Art from 1959 until 1983. He is a Member of the Council of the Crafts Council, was President of the Design and Industries Association from 1976 to 1978, is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers (and recipient of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award), and was Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art from 1990.

Personal life

Queensberry has been thrice married; firstly in 1956 (div 1969) to Anne Jones, by whom he had two daughters; secondly in 1969 (div 1986) to Alexandra Mary Clare Wyndham Sich, by whom he had three sons (the eldest born during his first marriage) and one daughter; and thirdly in 2000 to Hsueh-Chun Liao, by whom he has a daughter (legitimated by marriage).^[2]

Issue:

1. (illegitimate) Ambrose Carey (b. 1961), see below.
2. Sholto Francis Guy Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (born 1 June 1967), legitimazed by decision of Lord Lyon when his parents married.
3. Lord Milo Douglas (1975–2009)
4. Lord Torquil Douglas (b. 1978)
5. Lady Emma Douglas (b. 1956)) married 1986 Damon Lewis Vincent Heath, and has issue
6. Lady Alice Douglas (b. 1965) married 1stly 1989 (div) Ali Ugan; md 2ndly 1995 Simon Melia, and has surviving issue, a daughter and a son.^[3]
7. Lady Kate Douglas (b. 1969) married 1999 Tom Weisselberg, and has issue.
8. Lady Beth Douglas (b. 1999), legitimazed 2000 by her parents' marriage.

Queensberry has an eldest but illegitimate son, Ambrose Jonathan Carey (b. 1961), head of a British security and intelligence firm, whose half-sister Caroline Carey (b. 1959), an English art student, married the late Salem bin Laden, prior head of the global Bin Laden family corporation.^[4][5] Carey is married since 1995 to Christina Weir, a daughter of the late Sir Michael Scott Weir KCMG (1925–2006) and his first wife Alison Walker.^[6] They have issue two sons: Angus Carey-Douglas and James Carey-Douglas.^[7] Since Ambrose is illegitimate, he and his two sons are not in remainder to the Marquessate and subsidiary titles.

Queensberry has several siblings. By his father's first wife, he has an elder half-sister Lady Patricia Douglas, whose daughter Countess Emma de Bendern was the first wife of gossip columnist Nigel Dempster. He has a late sister Lady Jane Cory-Wright (1926–2007), twice married to David Arthur Cory-Wright, of the Cory-Wright Baronets. He has a younger half-brother Lord Gawain Douglas (b. 1948) who is married with issue, one son and five daughters.

Succession to the marquessate

The heir apparent to the marquessate is Viscount Drumlanrig (b. 1967), followed by his brother Torquil Douglas. The next heir is their half-uncle Lord Gawain Douglas, who has a son Jamie Douglas who is married with one son. The next two elderly heirs are grandsons of Lord Sholto Douglas, fourth and youngest son of the 9th Marquess. They are unmarried.^[8] These represent all the male-line heirs of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (1844–1900).

Heirs to the Black Douglases

The Earls of Douglas were commonly known as the Black Douglases and usually descend from Sir Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway and Earl of Wigtown, a son of 'the Good' Sir James Douglas. The latter was succeeded as Lord of Douglas by his nephew, the son of his elder brother Sir Archibald, William, 1st Earl of Douglas. He in turn had two sons; Sir James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas and Mar and the illegitimate George, Earl of Angus (a quo the 'Red Douglases'). This Sir James himself had two illegitimate sons, William Douglas, 1st Baron Drumlanrig and Archibald (the original heirs-general were Sandilands, Lords of Torphichen). The Earldom passed onto 'Black' Archibald the Grim, bastard son of 'the good' Sir James Douglas, an uncle of the 1st Earl and thence, the Black Douglases. The Earls of Queensberry are therefore senior to the 'Red Douglases' i.e. the Douglas-Hamiltons, Dukes of Hamilton, Brandon and closest to the original Earls of Douglas, Lord of Douglas (the Black Douglases). This makes the Earls of Queensberry legitimate contenders to the Chiefship of the Clan Douglas, along with the Earls of Morton (descended from Andrew, younger brother of Archibald, Lord of Douglas a grandfather of William le hardi de Douglas, the father of Sir Archibald, 'the good' Sir James and Hugh the dull.

References

1. ^ Designs for Life. Jamie Magazine, 2009
2. ^ Paul Theroff (2008)."Descendants of Henry VII of England: Part 8". Retrieved 5 December 2008
3. ^ "Lady Alice wins church fight" BBC News, 6 October 2004. Earlier reports stated that Lady Alice, mother of two sons, had taken back her husband "for the sake of the children" circa March 2004. "The Revenge of the Wronged Wives" (The Independent 11 July 2004) states that the marriage survives. Melia was an armed robber and heroin addict when the couple married. According to this article "Betrayal in Wales" by John Gilheaney for the Financial Times, the couple's first son died young, and they also have a daughter. Other sources refer to two sons or two young children.
4. ^ Outcast disowned by his outraged family, Telegraph.co.uk
5. ^ Ambrose Carey was described correctly as Queensberry's son in Tatler articles.
6. ^ Obituary: Sir Michael Weir, The Independent, 2006. See also Obituary: Sir Michael Weir, The Times, 2006
7. ^ Memorial Service: Sir Michael Weir, The Times, 22 September 2006. This lists Mr Carey, his wife, and two sons.
8. ^ Paul Theroff. 'Descendants of Henry VII". Last accessed 24 January 2009. A third brother Robert Douglas, married with one daughter, died in 2007.

Sources

• Memorial Service: Sir Michael Weir, The Times, 22 September 2006.
• Paul Theroff (2007). Descendants of King Henry VII of England: Part 8, last updated November 2007.

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Francis Douglas	Marquess of Queensberry 1954 – present	Incumbent

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Name	Queensberry, David Douglas, 12th Marquess Of
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Date of birth	19 December 1929
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