Scotland —
Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill, a doctor who practised
locally, caused a sensation in 1952 when at the age of 40
she re-registered her birth and renamed herself Ewan
<http://www.pfc.org.uk/legal/forbes.htm>.
Medical evidence was
produced so that her sex could be officially changed,
enabling her to marry Isabella Mitchell, the daughter of
a local farming family.
It is believed that the
aristocrat had always displayed both male and female
characteristics.
Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill
was born the daughter of the 18th Lord Sempill of
Craigievar Castle <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craigievar_Castle>.
As a teenager she was presented to the King and Queen
when she did the annual season in London.
Despite her tomboy
behaviour and liking for plus fours and the kilt, she was
still regarded as a woman when she graduated from
Aberdeen University medical school to become a family
doctor.
In 1952 a small notice
appeared in the columns of the local newspaper stating
that Dr Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill wished to be known
henceforth as Dr Ewan. A few weeks later he married his
housekeeper.
A relation recalled: "We
were children then but a bit surprised when Auntie
Elizabeth became Uncle Ewan."
Sir Ewan refused to talk
about the matter except when he said: "I was carelessly
registered as a girl. I have been sacrificed to prudery
and the horror which our parents had about
sex."
In 1967 the question of
his sex was raised again when a cousin challenged Sir
Ewan's right to the baronetcy of Craigievar after the
death of his brother, the 19th Lord Sempill.
Sir Ewan, who claimed not
to have any interest in the title, was confirmed as heir
to the baronetcy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Sempill>.
He died in 1993 and his
executors sold his estate to a farmer. Lady
Forbes-Sempill moved to the nearby town of Huntly and
died last year in an old people's home.
The present Lord Sempill
said: "It was pretty obvious to me that she did an
amazing job of nursing Uncle Ewan through a very
demanding psychological turmoil. She was very protective
of him.
"As far as his
predicament was concerned, we always understood it was
simply mistaken identification at birth. No surgery was
involved."
Mr Mackay, whose father
was the chairman of P & O, has moved into the
Swiss-style chalet that Sir Ewan built on the estate. He
said: "The history certainly did not play any part in my
buying Brux. But I have never heard anything
unpleasant.
"It is a marvellous place
which I want to revive as a semi-commercial sporting
estate, with grouse, partridges and
pheasants."
He also wants to have
salmon fishing on the River Don, which runs through the
estate.
Mr Mackay, who left Stowe
aged 16 to take a wildlife management course at Sparsholt
College in Hampshire, has worked as a gamekeeper on
nearby shoots and as a terrier man for
foxhounds.
He bought the estate from
Ian Smith, a farmer, with his share of a family trust
fund.
"There is a lot of work
to be done and that will raise the estate's value," he
said. "It has huge potential."
