Rory McEwen

Roderick McEwen (12 March 1932 – 16 October 1982), known as Rory McEwen, was a Scottish artist and musician. Early life and education He was the fourth of seven children born to Sir John McEwen, 1st Baronet, and his wife, Brigid Mary Lindley. She was the daughter of Sir Francis Oswald Lindley and great-granddaughter of botanist and illustrator John Lindley, who in 1840 was instrumental in saving the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from destruction. McEwen was educated at the family home, Marchmont House in the Scottish Borders, by a French governess named Mademoiselle Philippe, and at Eton College, where he was taught by Wilfred Blunt, who described him as "perhaps the most gifted artist to pass through my hands". After his National Service in The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, he gained a degree in English at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became friends with Karl Miller, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Mark Boxer, among others.