Crossroads and Characters

43. ANOTHER KIPPEN TWENTY FIRST.

As a coming-of-age present, the young man who will eventually inherit Sir John Wilson's baronetcy is presented with a gun by the gamekeeper at Kippen Tower, as it was being called in 1938.

Watching the Sir Thomas-to-be are, from far left, a cousin, his mother, tenant farmer Bob Mailer, Dowager Lady Emma Wilson (Sir John's widow who lived at Kippen until 1948), a banker, his sister, gamekeeper Waiter Orr and chauffeur Jack Jones. He did not inherit the title until 1968, and by then Kippen was no longer the Wilsons' property. Like other great houses in that period it had been sold, and in 1950 had become a special childrens' school for Perth and Kinross County. In 1977 it was bought by Dutch-born Johannes Jannssen and converted to a hotel and restaurant. Later it became a nursing home for the elderly.