Australians who have become Scottish Lords and Ladies
TENS of thousands of Aussies are buying the novelty title of Lord and Lady for $60, with some cheekily adding it to their bank cards in the hope of getting a better hotel room and restaurant table, or flight upgrade.
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TENS of thousands of Aussies are buying the novelty title of Lord and Lady for $60, with some cheekily adding it to their bank cards in the hope of getting a better hotel room and restaurant table, or flight upgrade.
Almost 50,000 aspiring aristocrats have paid a minimum $60 for a 30cm square piece of Scottish Highland that comes with the right to use the title Lord and Lady of Glencoe.
NO ONE WILL EVER CALL ME DOUG AGAIN
For $60 for a one square foot plot, $100 for 10 square feet, or $240 for 100 square feet, the new landed gentry of Australia are unlikely to qualify for a coat of arms, an invitation to Princess Eugenie’s wedding in a fortnight or afford the right to legally change their title.
But for self-styled aristocrat Douglas Edwards, “it’s worth every dollar”.
“I’m putting it on my bank card straight away,” he said.
Mr Edwards, who fits smoke alarms in rental properties, said: “I bought his one foot square plot this week and all my mates in the pub and at touch football are jealous.
“No one will ever call me Doug again — I’m Lord Douglas, it’s got a ring to it,” bragged the 47 year old father of three from Sydney’s Upper North shore, lifting up his trousers to reveal socks with the emblazoned words ‘I am a Lord’.
The Highland Titles registered charity, which sells the plots, is at pains to stress the benefits of buying titled land are bountiful — a sense of grandeur that comes with a title, a plot on which to scatter one’s ashes, a certificate of sale and a feeling of civic benevolence by helping to entice endangered wildcats back into the forest.
Thousands of Lords and ladies of Glencoe in the UK, Canada and US can officially use the title on their bank cards and drivers licences but not Down Under. Australian law does not allow new landowners to officially update their personal details.
Australians make up 20 per cent of the estate’s global community and ranks fifth in the buying stakes after the US, USA, France and Germany respectively.
Retired British zoologist and vegan Dr Peter Bevis championed the idea in 2006 when he sold off family land to fund his daughter’s university degree and additional tree planting.
A year later he bought Glencoe Wood and later did the same to restore the nature reserve on the Western Highlands destroyed by commercial forestry and hill farming.
‘I KNEW I WASN’T DESTINED FOR THIS LIFE’
Fellow campers queuing with their toothbrushes for the shower this week at the Trail Bay Gaol campsite on the NSW north coast have no idea they are standing with a certified member of the British aristocracy.
Lady Montgomery of Glencoe claimed her title three years ago when a friend bought her a plot of land as a gift designed to restore the nature preserve on 500-acre Glencoe Wood Estate, ravaged by commercial forestry and overgrazing.
“Tent city isn’t quite my natural manor, I’d much rather be holidaying in the South of France,” said the itinerant interior decorator who is camping in the South West Rocks campground this week.
“I sell samples of material from the back of my van but I always knew I wasn’t destined for this life,” said Lady Montgomery who, until three years ago, was plain old Catriona Montgomery from the conservative quarter of Roseville Chase on Sydney’s Upper North Shore.
“How dare you ask me my age,” she guffaws, glass of Pimm’s in hand, “ … a lady never tells.”
Lady Montgomery has not used the title on any official documents, but gamely uses it at dinner parties and is now angling to swap the company name Nuevue on the Hyundai van she works from to “Lady Montgomery Comes to you.”
“I’ve only got a one foot square plot, look, I’m never going to get a castle on it … but maybe one day a sandcastle perhaps?” she said.
THE LORD AND LADY DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR
Sydney residents have been quick to mock what they consider to be retirees Jennifer and Michael Birrell’s ostentatious ways, jokingly dubbing them the “Lord and Lady Delusions of Grandeur”.
Climbing out of their tinny after a day on the harbour, former real estate agent Ms Birrell, 70, said: “I don’t care what people say, Michael and I are Lord and Lady Birrell and we’re buying titles for the eight grandchildren.”
The couple have not made any official changes to their names, but that has not stopped them from enjoying the title.
“Being a lady feels good inside, when we visit Scotland next year, we’ll stick the Australian flag on our plots.”
‘IT CAN OPEN UP DOORS’
Sales and Marketing expert Lord Stephen Rossiter, a Londoner who bought a slice of Glencoe seven years ago, is touring Australia to highlight the “crowd funding-style” movement.
“It’s a novelty idea but some people take is far too seriously and use it on their credit cards and drivers licenses.
Lord Rossiter said “It’s a bit of fun lots of people like to boast and put the title on their bank cards, or add it to their drivers’ licenses, they think it will open up doors.
“You’re not supposed to in Australia but somehow some people get around it.
“You can officially do it in the US, Canada, UK and France.”