JANE MACMILLAN
(based on a personal appreciation
published in The Clan MacMillan International Magazine No. 5, Nov/Dec 2005)

Cecilia Jane Spurgin was born in London in 1931. Her Oxford degree in Botany was but an early step in a lifetime devoted to plants, but her care for people too took her into further studies in Social Work at the LSE before taking up a post as Almoner (medical social worker) at St. Thomas's in London. It was whilst working at this busy hospital in the city that she met George MacMillan - then a teacher at Wellington College in Berkshire - and they were married in 1961. Two years later Jane and her baby son Arthur accompanied George to Toronto where he'd been given a post as "Visiting Professor in Religious Studies" at Trinity College. Their sojourn in Canada gave Jane the chance to meet, and no doubt to charm instantly, many of the M'millan "cousins" that George had been getting to know since his father had been recognised as Chief in 1952. From 1965 George & Jane and their sons lived in Durham where George was Lecturer in Religious Studies at Bede College, before "retiring" in 1974 to help Sir Gordon & Lady MacMillan run the estate left to George by his maternal grandmother. As George & Jane gradually took over at Finlaystone they started the process of opening up gardens & woods as a visitor attraction, and at the same time George shouldered more of the burden in the clan by travelling extensively as his father's representative to gatherings abroad, where Jane's willingness to join in everything that was happening ensured her a place in all MacMillans' hearts. It was at Jane's iniative that the Clan Centre was created at Finlaystone in 1991, and it was shortly after that when I first met her and George - having come I thought simply to deposit some Glenurquhart Macmillan genealogies in the new archives.

Needless to say my first sight of the couple was as gardeners - then laying the lawn in the newly converted walled garden - and an invitation to tea ended up with my moving to Finlaystone to take charge of the Clan Centre. I often ask myself how it happened - and the best answer is simply that I was swept along by Jane's overwhelming enthusiasm for the Clan Centre and what it might achieve (as well, of course, as by George's flattering charm). To live in their house and to be treated virtually as a member of their family was both moving and instructive - and indeed, when it came to seeing the workload borne by Jane, fairly awe-inspiring. Because of George's eye-disease Jane had to do most of the paperwork, as well as running a big house in which, though she had some help with cleaning, she did all the provisioning and cooking herself (catering for everything from intimate dinner-parties to huge clan functions). On top of all that she was out every day with her fork tending the herbaceous borders, organising the rangers, or repelling "bandits" (vandals from the nearby Port Glasgow housing schemes who would swarm in on a warm summer's night in search of whatever mischief they could find). When not at work in the gardens Jane would be fulfilling her duties on the board of Erskine Hospital (an institution caring for old soldiers with which General MacMillan had been closely involved), raising money for Macmillan Cancer Relief, or helping any number of other charities. As to all that Jane did for the clan, there's probably little I can say that's not already known; after all so many MacMillans became "Friends of the Clan Centre" - now "Members of CMI(C)" - because of Jane. Many clanspeople have sent in memories of her and there simply isn't room to print them all - but they've all been read and greatly appreciated by George and his children. The story told in this simple testament from Roy MacMillan in Vancouver, Canada, is one repeated over and over again and thus can stand for all: My father and I were visiting Scotland, as he wished to see where his Great Grandfather had lived. In the course of the trip we decided to look into Finlaystone House as tourists, nothing special. When we were there we bumped into George who we originally thought was a grounds keeper. But he was not. He introduced us to Jane, who insisted on inviting us into their house and providing us with lunch. This was a most spectacular event for my father, and was the highlight of our trip. Jane was so gracious, that the memory will live with us the rest of our lives. Knowing Jane was a huge privilege for me, as I know it was for so many others - and we'll all miss her very greatly.

Graeme Mackenzie
Clan MacMillan historian, genealogist, and webmaster