Douneside House with a bronze statue of Mac Robert’s Reply, the Hawker Hurricane fighter plane donated to the RAf in memory of the three MacRobert men
Douneside House inTarìand, Royal Deeside, was once the country estate of the MacRobert family. Lady Rachel Workman MacRobert was a fascinating individual. Bom in Massachusetts, her parents were American explorers and she was a geologist, one of the first women elected to the Fellowship of the Geological Society of London.
Lady MacRobert pictured In 1938
This highly engaging and entertaining woman met her Aberdonian husband, Sir Alexander MacRobert, founder of the British India Corporation, onboard a liner sailing between India and the UK in 1909. Despite the age gap (he was thirty years older than her) it was a love match and the couple settled at Douneside House. Here they raised their three boys - Alasdair, Roderic and Iain.
Despite Sir Alexander’s long business trips to India, this influential family appeared to have it all. Lady MacRobert set the latest trends in the grounds and gardens, she was a society hostess with a keen eye on the politics of the day. The MacRoberts led a busy, international lifestyle, but with Sir Alexander’s passing in 1922, the lady of the house remained occupied with her three boy⅜ geology, running the estate, and breeding a herd of Friesian dairy cattle. Life in this quiet comer of Scotland was relatively tranquil, but from the late 1930s tragedy struck the family repeatedly, bringing with it grave loss and unimaginable grief.