Edmund Rupert Drummond

Vice-Admiral The Honourable

Edward Rupert Drummond

CB MVO DL
Drummond in 1937
Born8 May 1884
Died9 September 1965(1965-09-09) (aged 81)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch
Royal Navy
Rank
Vice-Admiral
CommandsHMS Capetown
New Zealand Division
Conflicts
World War I
World War II
AwardsCompanion of the Order of the Bath
Member of the Royal Victorian Order
Commander of the Order of the Two Rivers (1934)
SpouseLady Evelyn Drummond (nee Butler)
ChildrenAnne Drummond
Jean Constance Drummond
James Ralph Drummond

Vice-Admiral The Hon. Edmund Rupert Drummond CB MVO DL (8 May 1884 – 9 September 1965) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand Division.

Early life and family

Drummond was the youngest son of James Drummond, 10th Viscount Strathallan and his second wife Margaret, Viscountess Strathallan (nee Smythe), daughter of William Smythe of Methven Castle.[1] Drummond had one older half-brother from his father's first marriage, The Hon. William Huntly Drummond (later 11th Viscount Strathallan), as well four older siblings from his parents' union: James Eric Drummond (later 7th Earl of Perth and 12th Viscount Strathallan), Andrew Maurice Drummond, Margaret Cicely Drummond and Sybil Frances Drummond. Both his brother The Hon. Andrew Maurice Drummond his aunt The Hon. Frances Drummond served as a Page of Honour and Maid of honour respectively in the Household of Queen Victoria.[2]

The family lived at Machany House in Perthshire, which had been historically used as the Dower house for the seat of the Viscounts Strathallan, Strathallan Castle. Drummond's father, the 10th Viscount Strathallan, died at Machany House in 1893, and Drummond's half brother William succeeded to the family titles and estates.[2][3] His father's personal estate in England and Scotland was valued at £12,481 for probate in 1895.[4]

During the early 1900s Strathallan Castle had been leased to Graeme Whitelaw M.P.. Following Whitelaw's departure from the district, in 1910 Drummond's older half-brother William Drummond, 11th Viscount Strathallan (who had also succeeded their seventh-cousin-twice-removed as Earl of Perth in 1902)[5] sold the ancestral Strathmore Estates at Strathallan, Tullibardine, and Machany, which comprised 7,322 acres to industrialist Sir James Roberts, 1st Baronet.[6][7]

Following the sale of the family's estates in 1910, Drummond's mother Margaret, Dowager Viscountess Strathallan vacated Machany House in March 1911; she and her two daughters had taken up permanent residence at No. 39 Elm Park Gardens in Chelsea, London by May 1911,[8] where Margaret continued to live until her death in 1920.[9] She died on 5 December 1920, leaving a personal estate of £10,166.[10]

His older half-brother William, 6th Earl of Perth and 11th Viscount Strathallan, died in 1937, and was succeeded by Drummond's older brother Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth.[11]

Drummond was educated at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth; in 1906 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.[12] He served in World War I as second in command of the cruiser HMS Caroline from 1914 and then as an officer in the cruiser HMS Cardiff from 1917.[12]

Drummond served as the Chief Executive Officer of HMS Renown during the period of October 1921 to June 1922 when the ship was commissioned for an official tour of Japan and the Philippines undertaken by Edward, Prince of Wales,[13][14] who later, as King, appointed Drummond as a Naval Aide-de-camp in June 1936.[15]

He was appointed Commanding Officer of the cruiser HMS Capetown in 1927,[16] Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1930[17] and Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief American and West Indies Station before becoming Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand Division in 1935.[17] He served in World War II as Captain of the Dockyard at Portland from August 1939 and as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Rosyth from 1942 until September 1945 when he retired.[17]

Marriage and descendants

In 1910 he married Evelyn Frances Butler, eldest daughter of Lord Arthur Butler (later 4th Marquess of Ormonde) and Chicago heiress Ellen, Lady Arthur Butler,[18] with whom he had three children:[19]

  • Anne Drummond (1911 - 1985) married (1) in 1930 to Capt. Charles Michael Stratton (2) in 1941 to Lt. Col. Lawrence Bickmore (3) in 1947 to Lt. Col. Ian Arthur Murray (divorced in 1957), and (4) in 1964 to Brigadier James Charles Windsor-Lewis (who died in 1964).[19][20]
  • Jean Constance Drummond (1914 - 1997) married in 1947 to Lt. Col. Walter George Finney[19]
    • Sarah Anne Finney (b. 1948) who married Giles Philip Curtis in 1971.
    • Rachel Mary Finney (b. 1950) who married John Jeremy Windham (son of Sir Ralph Winham) in 1976.
    • Elizabeth Jean Finney (b. 1952) who married Andrew William Kennedy Merriam (grandson of Sir Laurence Merriam) in 1979.
  • James Ralph Drummond (1918 - 1944) (presumed dead following the disappearance of HMS Sickle)

Following Drummond's father-in-law's succession as Marquess of Ormonde in 1919, his wife Evelyn became known as Lady Evelyn Drummond.

Rear-Admiral Edmund Rupert Drummond with his wife and daughter

Personal life

Drummond's wife Lady Evelyn served as a First Officer (equivalent to the rank of Lieutenant Commander) in the Women's Royal Naval Service at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.[22][23][24] Lady Evelyn was described as "one of a remarkable collection of junior officers," inspected in 1941 by WRNS Director Vera Laughton Mathews in the latter's memoir Blue Tapestry.[24]

Residences

The 1921 United Kingdom census records that Capt. Drummond and Lady Evelyn Drummond lived at Blackbrook Grove in Fareham, Hampshire. Their household included a domestic Nurse, Housekeeper, Cook, Nurserymaid, Parlour maid, Kitchen maid, and two gardeners.[25] Blackbrook Grove was later purchased in 1927 by the newly-created Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth as an official residence for the Bishop of Portsmouth, and the house was renamed Bishopswood.[26]

The couple's electoral roll address from the period of c. 1918 - 1920 was the home of his mother, Margaret, Dowager Viscountess Strathallan, at No. 39 Elm Park Gardens in Chelsea, London.[27] The couple were living at Elm Park Gardens in November 1919; records survive of an advertisement for a domestic maid made by Lady Evelyn in The Times, which noted that six maids were kept in the household.[28] By 1924 their London address was 21 Moreton Terrace in Pimlico, Westminster.[29] During the 1930s the couple lived at The Old Manor in Fareham, although the house was leased in 1934, and again from 1935-38 when Drummond was stationed in New Zealand.[30][31]

The couple were close with Scottish Noblewoman Gwendolen Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, who was also the Suo jure 12th Lady Herries of Terregles. Lady Evelyn and the couple's eldest daughter Anne stayed at Norfolk House, London from January to April 1929.[32]

Later life and death

Following the conclusion of the Second World War, Drummond and his wife rented the 12,500 acre Garynahine Estate near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis duries the 1950s,[33] and he served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty.[34] They departed Garynahine in 1959 when the estate's owners decided to sell the property,[33] and during the 1960s they lived at No. 2 Queen's Acre in Windsor, Berkshire.[35]

Drummond died in September 1965 at Windsor. His funeral was held at The Royal Chapel, Windsor Great Park; attendees included his nephew David Drummond, 8th Earl of Perth, Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, and Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort.[36]

References

  1. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
  2. 1 2 "The Late Viscount Strathallan". The Perthshire Advertiser, etc. 13 December 1893. p. 7. Retrieved 13 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Obituary - 10th Viscount Strathallan". The Strathearn Herald. 9 December 1893. p. 2. Retrieved 13 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Personal Estate - 10th Viscount Strathallan". The Morning Post. 2 July 1895. p. 2. Retrieved 13 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Earl of Perth". The Tatler, no. 454. 9 March 1910. p. 475. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  6. ↑ "The History. Strathallan Castle". Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  7. ↑ "Sale of Perthshire Estates". The Perthshire Advertiser. 10 August 1910. p. 7. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  8. ↑ "Viscountess Strathallan new residence - 39 Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea, London". The Daily Telegraph. 29 May 1911. p. 14. Retrieved 13 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Viscountess Strathallan vacating Machany House, Perthshire". The Journal. 9 March 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 13 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Margaret, Viscountess Strathallan". The Strathearn Herald. 4 June 1921. p. 3. Retrieved 13 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Lorna Lloyd. Drummond, (James) Eric, seventh earl of Perth (1876–1951), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2011 accessed 7 October 2014
  12. 1 2 "Vice-Admiral Edmund Rupert Drummond". Clan Macfarlane. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
  13. ↑ "18 in June". The Mail (Millom and South Copeland ed.). 9 February 1929. p. 2. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  14. ↑ Burt, R. A. (1993). British Battleships, 1919–1939. London: Arms and Armour Press. p. 231, 234. ISBN 1-85409-068-2.
  15. ↑ "Naval A.D.C.s to The King". The Daily Telegraph. 26 June 1936. p. 19. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  16. ↑ "Royal Navy Warships" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2015.
  17. 1 2 3 "Senior Royal Navy Appointments" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 March 2012.
  18. ↑ "Royal Navy Flag Officers 1904-1945". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  19. 1 2 3 "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 1985". London: Debrett's Peerage; Macmillan. 1985. p. 943. OCLC 1310595419. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  20. 1 2 Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage. Kelly's Directories. 1976. p. 902. Retrieved 15 August 2026 – via Internet Archive.
  21. ↑ Mosley, Charles (1982). Debrett's Handbook: Distinguished People in British Life. Debrett's Peerage Limited. p. 351. ISBN 0-905649-38-9.
  22. ↑ "No. 36172". The London Gazette. 14 September 1943. p. 4109.
  23. ↑ Hore, Peter (2022). Bletchley Park’s Secret Source: Churchill’s Wrens and the Y Service in World War II. Barnsley: Greenhill Books. p. 18. ISBN 978-1784385811.
  24. 1 2 "Women at RUSI: 75 years, 1942–2017". The RUSI Journal. 2017. pp. 66–68.
  25. ↑ 1921 Census of England and Wales, Hampshire, Fareham, District 01, Subdistrict 06, Images 64–66 of 240. The National Archives.
  26. ↑ "House for the Bishop of Portsmouth". The Daily Telegraph. 10 September 1927. p. 6. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  27. ↑ Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, Electoral Registers, 1889–1970: Register of Voters, 1920, slide 142 of 1106. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Local Studies and Archives.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  28. ↑ "Situations Vacant. Domestic. (advertisement for Lady Evelyn Drummond, 39 Elm Park Gardens)". The Times. 14 November 1919. p. 29. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  29. ↑ Westminster, London, England, Electoral Registers, 1902–1970: St George Division, 1924, slide 595 of 1294. City of Westminster Archives Centre.
  30. ↑ "Many visitors for celebrations. Awatea Passengers". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 January 1938. p. 19. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  31. ↑ "Appointed to Royal Yacht". The Montreal Star. 9 February 1934. p. 20. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  32. ↑ "Lady Evelyn Drummond and Miss Anne Drummond staying at Norfolk House, St James's Square". The Daily Telegraph. 30 January 1929. p. 13. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  33. 1 2 Arthur Bowers (2 November 1959). "Period Residences in Brisk Demand". The Daily Telegraph. p. 19. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  34. ↑ "No. 40814". The London Gazette. 26 June 1956. p. 3732.
  35. ↑ Berkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840–1965: Windsor Division, 1960, slide 319 of 400. Berkshire Record Office, Reading.
  36. ↑ "Funeral – Vice-Admiral The Hon. E. R. Drummond". The Daily Telegraph. 15 September 1965. p. 18. Retrieved 11 November 2025.
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