Ian Anstruther

Sir Ian Fife Campbell Anstruther, of that Ilk, 8th Baronet of Balcaskie and 13th Baronet of Anstruther, Hereditary Carver of the Sovereign, Hereditary Master of the Royal Household in Scotland, Chief of the Name and Arms of Anstruther FSA (11 May 1922 – 29 July 2007) was a baronet twice over. He inherited substantial property interests in South Kensington and wrote several books on specialised areas of 19th-century social and literary history. Early life Ian Anstruther was born in Buckinghamshire the younger son of Douglas Tollemache Anstruther and his first wife, Enid (née Campbell). His father was the son of Harry Anstruther, an MP, himself a younger son of another MP, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Robert Anstruther, 5th Baronet. His maternal grandfather was Lord George Campbell, younger son of the 8th Duke of Argyll. His father served in the Army and then worked for the London and South Western Railway. His parents spent 14 years in divorce and then custody proceedings from 1924, and so he spent much of his youth with his mother's sister, Joan Campbell, at Strachur House in Argyllshire and her London house in Bryanston Square in London. His father's sister, aunt Joyce, better known as Jan Struther, created Mrs. Miniver. Education and military career He was educated at Eton, and joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1939 when the Second World War broke out. An amateur radio ham, he was quickly transferred to the Royal Corps of Signals, and was commissioned, ending up as a captain. He read Natural Sciences at New College, Oxford, from 1940 to 1942, before returning to Catterick to train for the invasion of France. He landed with his brigade in Normandy three weeks after D-Day, and took charge of a team of signallers.