The Lord Chamberlain and a leading Scottish peer, the Earl of Airlie enjoyed a conventional upper-class education at Eton and, during the Second World War, served in the Scots Guard. He remained in the army until 1950, when he went to the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester to learn estate management, as the Airlie estate covered 69,000 acres in the rich farming county of Angus. He has two large stately homes on the estate: Cortachy Castle and Airlie Castle. He
also has a home in London's fashionable Chelsea.
A riding accident in 1952 soon after his marriage to Virginia Ryan, the daughter of an American multimillionaire, put paid to his career of running the estates. He took up merchant banking, saying "We all have to make a living now". He joined J. Henry Schroder in 1953, became a director in 1961 and chairman twelve years later.
In 1968 he inherited his father's title, while most of the family property had been passed on years previously; as a result his father's estate was valued at only œ97,110/-. His father had also been Lord Chamberlain to the Queen Mother when she was queen.
In 1977 Lord Airlie became chairman of the ultimate holding company, Schroder plc. In 1984 he had to give up his œ168,000/- a-year job to take up his royal duties. The only really controversial role of the Lord Chamberlain --- censorship of the theatre -- was dropped in 1969 to avoid embarrassment over the musical "Hair".

Source: Leo van de Pas