'Dashing' Scottish aristocrat whose bed-hopping ways were inspiration for James Bond dies, aged 87

Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees was a n international playboy who spoke several languages

His success wooing a succession of socialites and job as a researcher at the College of Arms in London inspired Bond author Ian Fleming

He was deeply involved in helping Fleming research 007’s adventures for the 1963 novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service



The count turned his back on his life as a French-born aristocrat to be laird of an island in the Outer Hebrides



A dashing Scottish aristocrat whose identity was ‘borrowed’ by James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service has died at the age of 87.

Like his fictional counterpart, Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees, who passed away at a nursing home in Stornoway, Lewis , on Saturday, wooed a succession of socialites.

He was deeply involved in helping Bond author Ian Fleming research 007’s adventures for the 1963 novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.



In the book, Bond’s cover as genealogist Sir Hilary Bray was based on the count who was then the heraldic researcher, appointed by the Queen, at the College of Arms in London.



Island aristocrat: Count Robin preferred his small farmhouse on the Outer Hebrides island of Great Bernera, which he owned, to a castle. He served as a 'cover identity' for fiction's most famous spy

Sir Hilary – played in the 1969 film by George Lazenby in his only outing as 007 – bore the official title of Sable Basilisk Pursuivant, a play on Mirrlees’s own title of Rouge Dragon Pursuivant.

Count Robin worker at the College of Arms between 1962 and 1967.



His success with glamorous, well-heeled women was also mirrored in the Bond novels.

An international playboy who spoke several languages, he won the hearts of debutantes including Fiona Campbell-Walker, a top model who married one of the richest men in Europe, Baron Thyssen.

After several years of ill health, his colourful life came to an end the weekend in a humble nursing home on the Western Isles.

The former Queen’s Herald, who turned his back on his life as a French-born aristocrat to be laird of a Hebridean island, died on Saturday night.

The Oxford-educated nobleman had suffered two strokes in recent years and had been poorly for some time. He was living in the Blar Buidhe nursing home in Stornoway, Lewis.

Playboy: Count Robin's success with glamorous, well-heeled women was also mirrored in the Bond novels

Count Robin was deeply involved in helping Ian Fleming (left) research James Bond’s adventures for the novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The film starred George Lazenby (right) as 007, who posed as genealogist Sir Hilary Bray, a cover inspired by the count's job as heraldic researcher at the College Of Arms in London

A descendant of King Louis Philippe I of France, Count Robin was the godson of the 11th Duke of Argyll, and the popular laird of Great Bernera.

He bought the 7,000-acre island, off the west coast of Lewis, in 1962 after falling in love with its isolation, rugged, stunning scenery, and the warmth of its 350 people.



Count Robin won the hearts of debutantes including Fiona Campbell-Walker (pictured), a top model who married one of the richest men in Europe, Baron Thyssen

Count Robin lived there for the second half of his life, latterly moving into a warden-run community care unit in Bernera when staying alone in his crumbling croft house got too much.

He was born Robin Ian Evelyn Grinnell-Milne in January 1925 to Captain Duncan Grennell-Milne, a highly-decorated First World War RAF pilot and French Countess Frances de la Lanne.



His parents divorced and his mother later married Scots war hero Major General William Mirrlees.



Taking a liking to her new husband’s surname, her son changed his name by deed poll twice, in 1958 and then 20 years ago to Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart le Prince de la Lanne-Mirrlees.



Count Robin became a captain in the Royal Artillery serving in India during the Second World War and was later a herald to the Queen and attended her coronation. He also held numerous foreign knighthoods.

And in 2005, he took up his title of Prince of Incoronata, an Adriatic archipelago, bestowed upon him in the 1960s by the exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia, to whom he had been adjutant and confidant.

After he moved to Great Bernera, islanders grew extremely fond of the likeable, charming man they called Count Robin.



He supported many local causes and readily released land for community use building a bond of trust between laird and crofter.

After the Lloyds insurance syndicates crash in the 1990s Count Robin had to sell off his assets to pay £2million of losses.

Fact following fiction: Telly Savalas stars as Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which the head of Spectre seeks to claim the title of Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp. Ironically, Count Robin had the title Prince of Incoronata bestowed upon him in 1967 by the exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia - four years after Fleming wrote his Bond novel

But Great Bernera was never put on the market. He also refused to sell Inchdrewer Castle in Banffshire which he bought as a ruin and partially restored in 1971.

At the behest of islanders, he withdrew a clutch of uninhabited islands off Great Bernera – including Little Bernera – from the market. But other grand properties had to go, including a £400,000 chateau in France – his mother’s former home – a flat in Paris and Ratzenegg Castle in Austria.



Many of his prized collection of antiques and paintings were also auctioned off.



Later on, the crash in prices of farmed salmon also hit his finances and he was forced to sell his seven-bedroom mansion in Holland Park, London, and his Swiss apartment.

He was highly-regarded on Great Bernera, which has a population of just 350, as a benevolent laird.



Fellow islander Rhona Macleod said in 2005: 'He may be a prince, but to us he will always simply be Robin.

'He's had two castles in his life, but he must be the only prince who preferred a croft house on Bernera. That says it all.

'He also must be the only prince who joined a local lottery syndicate - but after Lloyds he needed the money.'

Count Robin was married once, at the age of 45 to a nurse half his age, but it fizzled out after a week.



He had a long-term relationship with a German duchess, Margarethe of Württemberg, and is survived by their son Patrick de la Lanne, 50, the mayor of Delmenhort – a town of 74,000 people near Bremen in north Germany – and three adult grandchildren.



