Obituary for Neil Emerson Elliott (14 Apr 2003):
Neil Elliott, who has died aged 82, was agent of the Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire for nearly 35 years, first to the Duke of Portland and later to Lady Anne Bentinck.
In his time at Welbeck, Elliott helped transform the fortunes of one of England's largest ducal estates. He arrived in 1956 from the staff of the old Department of Estate Management at Cambridge, having been asked by the 7th Duke of Portland to help find a new agent for his estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Elliott suggested two suitable candidates, only to be told that the Duke wanted to interview him.
In later years, Elliott used to tell the story of how he drove up to Welbeck in his pink 1933 Rolls-Royce to be interviewed by the Duke and Duchess. "I do so like your car, Mr Elliott," said the Duchess, "the colour of my boudoir."
Having run his own small estate in Scotland, Elliott had vowed never again to be someone else's agent, and had prepared a speech declining the job. But the Duke would have none of it.
The estate consisted of some 15,000 acres of land, and a portfolio of residential and commercial property, as well as other interests and investments. Elliott set about modernising the management, and maximising its income from the mineral and mining rights beneath.
With an expert team of keepers, he helped the Duke provide some of the finest pheasant shooting in England, notably at the Creswell Crags drive, with the birds coming over the steep cliffs of a gorge on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
An important part of Elliott's work was managing the relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which leased Welbeck Abbey as a boarding school for future officers in the Army's Technical Corps. Elliott enjoyed good relations with a long succession of headmasters and commandants, regularly inviting them to join the agent's shoots on Welbeck.
As agent, Elliott was also expected to hunt; but finding a horse strong enough for his 6 ft 4 ins frame was not always easy, although his huge hunters, named successively Passing Cloud and Sunshine, seemed to cope. At first he went out with the Grove and Rufford, but later it was with Lady Anne's own hunt, the Rufford Forest Harriers.
He also stalked with the Portlands in Scotland, and fished. But his first love was always shooting, for which he had a remarkable eye. His keen financial brain and instinct for gambling was evident on the Stock Market as well as on the one-armed bandit in the Welbeck Estate workers' club.
He did much to help the establishment of the Harley Foundation, which provides support for artists and craftspeople in workshops built on the former racehorse gallops on the estate. He also devoted much time to his exploration of Islamic mysticism, particularly Sufism as expounded by the Afghan teacher, Idries Shah.
Neil Emerson Elliott was born in London on February 25 1920. His father, Myles, was a barrister who had read Law and Arabic at Cambridge before fighting with the Glosters at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. In 1930 Myles Elliott was appointed Solicitor-General to the Mandatory Government in Palestine. Three years later, following a series of controversial government prosecutions, he was assassinated outside the King David Hotel, and buried in the Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion.
Neil and his younger brother, Denholm, who was to become the famous actor, were at school in England at the time. Neil was in his first term at Repton, and always remembered the two large, white £5 notes which the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, another Reptonian, sent to him.
After Repton, Elliott went out to Kashmir to work for the family timber business. A year later he was sent to Officer Cadet School at Bangalore. Unusually, he was commissioned from there into the British Army. He joined 15 Field Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery shortly before they moved into Iraq as part of British occupation forces following the coup by Rashid Ali.
Elliott spent most of the rest of the war in the Middle East. When Lieutenant General Sir Mosely Mayne, who was to command 21st Indian Armoured Corps for the occupation of Persia, needed an ADC, Elliott was appointed. He claimed he was chosen because he was the only officer in the British Army who spoke fluent Urdu.
After Iran, Elliott went to Staff College in Palestine (when he visited his father's grave for the first time), and was then posted to HQ PAI (Persia and Iraq) Force, Baghdad, where much of his spare time was spent shooting snipe. In later years Elliott attributed his deafness not to his many years game shooting but to watching from a position ahead of the barrel a captured German "88" discharge into the sea from the beach at Tel Aviv. His last couple of years in the Army were spent on the staff of the Adjutant General in the War Office in London, an experience that left him with a lasting contempt for the pen-pushers and "yes men" in Whitehall.
On demobilisation, Elliott went up to Clare College, Cambridge, to read Estate Management. It was then that he married Rosemary Warren, whom he had first met, aged three, at nursery school in London. After Cambridge, and a stint working for the Buxtons in Norfolk, Elliott moved to near Ballantrae in Ayrshire, where he had inherited a small estate from cousins. As well as running this, and bringing up his young family, Elliott studied in Glasgow for the professional examinations of the Chartered Land Agents' Society.
He found that the estate came to own him, rather than the other way round, and gratefully accepted an invitation from his old friend and mentor, Donald Denman, to join the staff of the Department of Estate Management. There he undertook research on the effect of estate duty on the great landed estates, and supported Denman in his work on land management in countries as diverse as Poland under Communism, and Iran under the Shah.
At Welbeck, a particular success was the Game Fair, which was held on the estate in 1980. Elliott's achievements were recognised by his election as president of the Land Agency and Agriculture Division of the RICS in 1982.
In the last year of his life he returned to his father's grave in Jerusalem, 60 years after his last visit, to lay his mother's ashes to rest there alongside her husband.
Elliott, who died on February 3, is survived by his wife and by a son and three daughters, one of whom is married to the current British Ambassador to Israel.
Neil Elliott, who has died aged 82, was agent of the Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire for nearly 35 years, first to the Duke of Portland and later to Lady Anne Bentinck.
In his time at Welbeck, Elliott helped transform the fortunes of one of England's largest ducal estates. He arrived in 1956 from the staff of the old Department of Estate Management at Cambridge, having been asked by the 7th Duke of Portland to help find a new agent for his estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Elliott suggested two suitable candidates, only to be told that the Duke wanted to interview him.
In later years, Elliott used to tell the story of how he drove up to Welbeck in his pink 1933 Rolls-Royce to be interviewed by the Duke and Duchess. "I do so like your car, Mr Elliott," said the Duchess, "the colour of my boudoir."
Having run his own small estate in Scotland, Elliott had vowed never again to be someone else's agent, and had prepared a speech declining the job. But the Duke would have none of it.
The estate consisted of some 15,000 acres of land, and a portfolio of residential and commercial property, as well as other interests and investments. Elliott set about modernising the management, and maximising its income from the mineral and mining rights beneath.
With an expert team of keepers, he helped the Duke provide some of the finest pheasant shooting in England, notably at the Creswell Crags drive, with the birds coming over the steep cliffs of a gorge on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
An important part of Elliott's work was managing the relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which leased Welbeck Abbey as a boarding school for future officers in the Army's Technical Corps. Elliott enjoyed good relations with a long succession of headmasters and commandants, regularly inviting them to join the agent's shoots on Welbeck.
As agent, Elliott was also expected to hunt; but finding a horse strong enough for his 6 ft 4 ins frame was not always easy, although his huge hunters, named successively Passing Cloud and Sunshine, seemed to cope. At first he went out with the Grove and Rufford, but later it was with Lady Anne's own hunt, the Rufford Forest Harriers.
He also stalked with the Portlands in Scotland, and fished. But his first love was always shooting, for which he had a remarkable eye. His keen financial brain and instinct for gambling was evident on the Stock Market as well as on the one-armed bandit in the Welbeck Estate workers' club.
He did much to help the establishment of the Harley Foundation, which provides support for artists and craftspeople in workshops built on the former racehorse gallops on the estate. He also devoted much time to his exploration of Islamic mysticism, particularly Sufism as expounded by the Afghan teacher, Idries Shah.
Neil Emerson Elliott was born in London on February 25 1920. His father, Myles, was a barrister who had read Law and Arabic at Cambridge before fighting with the Glosters at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. In 1930 Myles Elliott was appointed Solicitor-General to the Mandatory Government in Palestine. Three years later, following a series of controversial government prosecutions, he was assassinated outside the King David Hotel, and buried in the Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion.
Neil and his younger brother, Denholm, who was to become the famous actor, were at school in England at the time. Neil was in his first term at Repton, and always remembered the two large, white £5 notes which the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, another Reptonian, sent to him.
After Repton, Elliott went out to Kashmir to work for the family timber business. A year later he was sent to Officer Cadet School at Bangalore. Unusually, he was commissioned from there into the British Army. He joined 15 Field Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery shortly before they moved into Iraq as part of British occupation forces following the coup by Rashid Ali.
Elliott spent most of the rest of the war in the Middle East. When Lieutenant General Sir Mosely Mayne, who was to command 21st Indian Armoured Corps for the occupation of Persia, needed an ADC, Elliott was appointed. He claimed he was chosen because he was the only officer in the British Army who spoke fluent Urdu.
After Iran, Elliott went to Staff College in Palestine (when he visited his father's grave for the first time), and was then posted to HQ PAI (Persia and Iraq) Force, Baghdad, where much of his spare time was spent shooting snipe. In later years Elliott attributed his deafness not to his many years game shooting but to watching from a position ahead of the barrel a captured German "88" discharge into the sea from the beach at Tel Aviv. His last couple of years in the Army were spent on the staff of the Adjutant General in the War Office in London, an experience that left him with a lasting contempt for the pen-pushers and "yes men" in Whitehall.
On demobilisation, Elliott went up to Clare College, Cambridge, to read Estate Management. It was then that he married Rosemary Warren, whom he had first met, aged three, at nursery school in London. After Cambridge, and a stint working for the Buxtons in Norfolk, Elliott moved to near Ballantrae in Ayrshire, where he had inherited a small estate from cousins. As well as running this, and bringing up his young family, Elliott studied in Glasgow for the professional examinations of the Chartered Land Agents' Society.
He found that the estate came to own him, rather than the other way round, and gratefully accepted an invitation from his old friend and mentor, Donald Denman, to join the staff of the Department of Estate Management. There he undertook research on the effect of estate duty on the great landed estates, and supported Denman in his work on land management in countries as diverse as Poland under Communism, and Iran under the Shah.
At Welbeck, a particular success was the Game Fair, which was held on the estate in 1980. Elliott's achievements were recognised by his election as president of the Land Agency and Agriculture Division of the RICS in 1982.
In the last year of his life he returned to his father's grave in Jerusalem, 60 years after his last visit, to lay his mother's ashes to rest there alongside her husband.
Elliott, who died on February 3, is survived by his wife and by a son and three daughters, one of whom is married to the current British Ambassador to Israel.
Obituary for Neil Emerson Elliott (14 Apr 2003):
Neil Elliott, who has died aged 82, was agent of the Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire for nearly 35 years, first to the Duke of Portland and later to Lady Anne Bentinck.
In his time at Welbeck, Elliott helped transform the fortunes of one of England's largest ducal estates. He arrived in 1956 from the staff of the old Department of Estate Management at Cambridge, having been asked by the 7th Duke of Portland to help find a new agent for his estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Elliott suggested two suitable candidates, only to be told that the Duke wanted to interview him.
In later years, Elliott used to tell the story of how he drove up to Welbeck in his pink 1933 Rolls-Royce to be interviewed by the Duke and Duchess. "I do so like your car, Mr Elliott," said the Duchess, "the colour of my boudoir."
Having run his own small estate in Scotland, Elliott had vowed never again to be someone else's agent, and had prepared a speech declining the job. But the Duke would have none of it.
The estate consisted of some 15,000 acres of land, and a portfolio of residential and commercial property, as well as other interests and investments. Elliott set about modernising the management, and maximising its income from the mineral and mining rights beneath.
With an expert team of keepers, he helped the Duke provide some of the finest pheasant shooting in England, notably at the Creswell Crags drive, with the birds coming over the steep cliffs of a gorge on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
An important part of Elliott's work was managing the relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which leased Welbeck Abbey as a boarding school for future officers in the Army's Technical Corps. Elliott enjoyed good relations with a long succession of headmasters and commandants, regularly inviting them to join the agent's shoots on Welbeck.
As agent, Elliott was also expected to hunt; but finding a horse strong enough for his 6 ft 4 ins frame was not always easy, although his huge hunters, named successively Passing Cloud and Sunshine, seemed to cope. At first he went out with the Grove and Rufford, but later it was with Lady Anne's own hunt, the Rufford Forest Harriers.
He also stalked with the Portlands in Scotland, and fished. But his first love was always shooting, for which he had a remarkable eye. His keen financial brain and instinct for gambling was evident on the Stock Market as well as on the one-armed bandit in the Welbeck Estate workers' club.
He did much to help the establishment of the Harley Foundation, which provides support for artists and craftspeople in workshops built on the former racehorse gallops on the estate. He also devoted much time to his exploration of Islamic mysticism, particularly Sufism as expounded by the Afghan teacher, Idries Shah.
Neil Emerson Elliott was born in London on February 25 1920. His father, Myles, was a barrister who had read Law and Arabic at Cambridge before fighting with the Glosters at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. In 1930 Myles Elliott was appointed Solicitor-General to the Mandatory Government in Palestine. Three years later, following a series of controversial government prosecutions, he was assassinated outside the King David Hotel, and buried in the Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion.
Neil and his younger brother, Denholm, who was to become the famous actor, were at school in England at the time. Neil was in his first term at Repton, and always remembered the two large, white £5 notes which the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, another Reptonian, sent to him.
After Repton, Elliott went out to Kashmir to work for the family timber business. A year later he was sent to Officer Cadet School at Bangalore. Unusually, he was commissioned from there into the British Army. He joined 15 Field Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery shortly before they moved into Iraq as part of British occupation forces following the coup by Rashid Ali.
Elliott spent most of the rest of the war in the Middle East. When Lieutenant General Sir Mosely Mayne, who was to command 21st Indian Armoured Corps for the occupation of Persia, needed an ADC, Elliott was appointed. He claimed he was chosen because he was the only officer in the British Army who spoke fluent Urdu.
After Iran, Elliott went to Staff College in Palestine (when he visited his father's grave for the first time), and was then posted to HQ PAI (Persia and Iraq) Force, Baghdad, where much of his spare time was spent shooting snipe. In later years Elliott attributed his deafness not to his many years game shooting but to watching from a position ahead of the barrel a captured German "88" discharge into the sea from the beach at Tel Aviv. His last couple of years in the Army were spent on the staff of the Adjutant General in the War Office in London, an experience that left him with a lasting contempt for the pen-pushers and "yes men" in Whitehall.
On demobilisation, Elliott went up to Clare College, Cambridge, to read Estate Management. It was then that he married Rosemary Warren, whom he had first met, aged three, at nursery school in London. After Cambridge, and a stint working for the Buxtons in Norfolk, Elliott moved to near Ballantrae in Ayrshire, where he had inherited a small estate from cousins. As well as running this, and bringing up his young family, Elliott studied in Glasgow for the professional examinations of the Chartered Land Agents' Society.
He found that the estate came to own him, rather than the other way round, and gratefully accepted an invitation from his old friend and mentor, Donald Denman, to join the staff of the Department of Estate Management. There he undertook research on the effect of estate duty on the great landed estates, and supported Denman in his work on land management in countries as diverse as Poland under Communism, and Iran under the Shah.
At Welbeck, a particular success was the Game Fair, which was held on the estate in 1980. Elliott's achievements were recognised by his election as president of the Land Agency and Agriculture Division of the RICS in 1982.
In the last year of his life he returned to his father's grave in Jerusalem, 60 years after his last visit, to lay his mother's ashes to rest there alongside her husband.
Elliott, who died on February 3, is survived by his wife and by a son and three daughters, one of whom is married to the current British Ambassador to Israel.
Neil Elliott, who has died aged 82, was agent of the Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire for nearly 35 years, first to the Duke of Portland and later to Lady Anne Bentinck.
In his time at Welbeck, Elliott helped transform the fortunes of one of England's largest ducal estates. He arrived in 1956 from the staff of the old Department of Estate Management at Cambridge, having been asked by the 7th Duke of Portland to help find a new agent for his estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Elliott suggested two suitable candidates, only to be told that the Duke wanted to interview him.
In later years, Elliott used to tell the story of how he drove up to Welbeck in his pink 1933 Rolls-Royce to be interviewed by the Duke and Duchess. "I do so like your car, Mr Elliott," said the Duchess, "the colour of my boudoir."
Having run his own small estate in Scotland, Elliott had vowed never again to be someone else's agent, and had prepared a speech declining the job. But the Duke would have none of it.
The estate consisted of some 15,000 acres of land, and a portfolio of residential and commercial property, as well as other interests and investments. Elliott set about modernising the management, and maximising its income from the mineral and mining rights beneath.
With an expert team of keepers, he helped the Duke provide some of the finest pheasant shooting in England, notably at the Creswell Crags drive, with the birds coming over the steep cliffs of a gorge on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
An important part of Elliott's work was managing the relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which leased Welbeck Abbey as a boarding school for future officers in the Army's Technical Corps. Elliott enjoyed good relations with a long succession of headmasters and commandants, regularly inviting them to join the agent's shoots on Welbeck.
As agent, Elliott was also expected to hunt; but finding a horse strong enough for his 6 ft 4 ins frame was not always easy, although his huge hunters, named successively Passing Cloud and Sunshine, seemed to cope. At first he went out with the Grove and Rufford, but later it was with Lady Anne's own hunt, the Rufford Forest Harriers.
He also stalked with the Portlands in Scotland, and fished. But his first love was always shooting, for which he had a remarkable eye. His keen financial brain and instinct for gambling was evident on the Stock Market as well as on the one-armed bandit in the Welbeck Estate workers' club.
He did much to help the establishment of the Harley Foundation, which provides support for artists and craftspeople in workshops built on the former racehorse gallops on the estate. He also devoted much time to his exploration of Islamic mysticism, particularly Sufism as expounded by the Afghan teacher, Idries Shah.
Neil Emerson Elliott was born in London on February 25 1920. His father, Myles, was a barrister who had read Law and Arabic at Cambridge before fighting with the Glosters at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. In 1930 Myles Elliott was appointed Solicitor-General to the Mandatory Government in Palestine. Three years later, following a series of controversial government prosecutions, he was assassinated outside the King David Hotel, and buried in the Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion.
Neil and his younger brother, Denholm, who was to become the famous actor, were at school in England at the time. Neil was in his first term at Repton, and always remembered the two large, white £5 notes which the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, another Reptonian, sent to him.
After Repton, Elliott went out to Kashmir to work for the family timber business. A year later he was sent to Officer Cadet School at Bangalore. Unusually, he was commissioned from there into the British Army. He joined 15 Field Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery shortly before they moved into Iraq as part of British occupation forces following the coup by Rashid Ali.
Elliott spent most of the rest of the war in the Middle East. When Lieutenant General Sir Mosely Mayne, who was to command 21st Indian Armoured Corps for the occupation of Persia, needed an ADC, Elliott was appointed. He claimed he was chosen because he was the only officer in the British Army who spoke fluent Urdu.
After Iran, Elliott went to Staff College in Palestine (when he visited his father's grave for the first time), and was then posted to HQ PAI (Persia and Iraq) Force, Baghdad, where much of his spare time was spent shooting snipe. In later years Elliott attributed his deafness not to his many years game shooting but to watching from a position ahead of the barrel a captured German "88" discharge into the sea from the beach at Tel Aviv. His last couple of years in the Army were spent on the staff of the Adjutant General in the War Office in London, an experience that left him with a lasting contempt for the pen-pushers and "yes men" in Whitehall.
On demobilisation, Elliott went up to Clare College, Cambridge, to read Estate Management. It was then that he married Rosemary Warren, whom he had first met, aged three, at nursery school in London. After Cambridge, and a stint working for the Buxtons in Norfolk, Elliott moved to near Ballantrae in Ayrshire, where he had inherited a small estate from cousins. As well as running this, and bringing up his young family, Elliott studied in Glasgow for the professional examinations of the Chartered Land Agents' Society.
He found that the estate came to own him, rather than the other way round, and gratefully accepted an invitation from his old friend and mentor, Donald Denman, to join the staff of the Department of Estate Management. There he undertook research on the effect of estate duty on the great landed estates, and supported Denman in his work on land management in countries as diverse as Poland under Communism, and Iran under the Shah.
At Welbeck, a particular success was the Game Fair, which was held on the estate in 1980. Elliott's achievements were recognised by his election as president of the Land Agency and Agriculture Division of the RICS in 1982.
In the last year of his life he returned to his father's grave in Jerusalem, 60 years after his last visit, to lay his mother's ashes to rest there alongside her husband.
Elliott, who died on February 3, is survived by his wife and by a son and three daughters, one of whom is married to the current British Ambassador to Israel.
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