LAIRD OF DUNSKEY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 January 1931, Page 10

LAIRD OF DUNSKEY

LIEUT. ORR-EWING’S DEATH SCRATCH WHILE PLAYING RUGBY BLOOD POISONING SET IN Further details concerning the death of Lieutenant E.- L. Orr-Ewing, of the Black Watch, and, laird, of Dunskey, who was well knqwfrdh New Zealand as A.D.C. to his uricle, Sir Charles Fergusson, came to hand with the last mail from Scotland. G

At the inquest at Paddington, Sir Thomas Inskip said that Lieutenant Orr-Ewing was playing football on 7tli November and received a scratch on the face. The injury became septic,_ and he was taken to a nursing home in Welbeck Street, where he died. Dr. James Marr said that Lieutenant Orr-Ewing had a scratch above the right ear, and blood poisoning set up. A_ few days later pleurisy and pneumonia developed. Death was due to cellulitis of the face, the result of the scratch. He was the eldest son of the late Mr Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing, Unionist member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs, and who acquired the estate of Duriskey at the beginning of the present century. ARMY CAREER

Mr C. L. Orr-Ewing died in 1904, and the estate was administered by trustees until his son, Mr Edward Lindsay OrrEwing, camo of age. He joined the Black Watch in 1917, and served with his regiment during the latter part of the Great War, receiving the M.C. for acts of conspicuous gallantry on the field. , . After the war he served in India, and in September, 1927, when his uncle, Sir Charles Fergusson, Bt. of Kilkerran, was still Governor-General of New Zealand, he was appointed his A.D.C., and remained in that, capacity until Sir Charles returned last year, holding the temporary rank of captain while the appointment lasted. Before his marriage he returned to his regiment with the rank of lieutenant, and, being a keen Rugby player, he was playing for them when he sustained the injury which led to his early death.

COUNTY ACTIVITIES | In the public affairs of the county of Wigtown and the village of Portpat-. rick he played an important part. He was for a time a member of both .the County Council and the Portpatrick Parish Council. He was patron of Dunskey Golf Club, and annually presented prizes for competition. He also actively associated himself with the ex-Service Men’s Club in the village and' in the’ promotion of the scheme for the erec-, tion of the Portpatrick Public Hall. He was at one time a. member of the Wigtownshire Rugby Club, and before going to New Zealand* frequently donned their colours. One of his most cherished possessions was the gift presented to him by. the tenantry on the occasion of lijs coming-of-age. This was,a solid silver ,statu- 1 ette of a Black Watch soldier .of 1749, a replica of the figure of the regiment’s memorial at Aberfeldy. \- In July last, Lieutenant Orr-Ewing was married at Chichester CStliedral to the only daughter of Admiral. Sir James and Lady Fergusson, of Woodend, Chichester,-and they received an enthusiastic welcome from the tenantry when they returned from their honey-.

moon, and were presented with a silver quaich and a timepiece. THE DUNSKEY ESTATE ; The estate of Dunskey, near Portpatrick, goes back a long way in bcottish history, and the ancient castle, now in ruins on the beetling cliffs to the south of the village, is a relic of the days when lairds in Galloway were not so neighbourly as they are now. It built about 1510 by Adair of Kilhilt, 'and is reached by a pathway leading along the top of the cliffs. legends are associated with this old keep, one of the most popular being that of the maid who was sitting at an open window dandling a child of one of the Adairs when it sprang out of her arms -on to the jagged rocks below. It is related that rather than face the anger of the family the girl jumped after the child. The present Dunskey Hause ns situated to the north of the village iin a beautiful glen. -