Some years ago in Oxford I was introduced to a distinguished Tuberculosis researcher, Professor Denny Mitchison. I was informed that he was “practically Edinburgh aristocracy” as he was the son of the author Naomi Mitchison. Two years later we celebrated his birthday at another conference in Oxford with a talk being given by Dr Cliff Barry III celebrating Professor Mitchison’s achievements and his family connections.

Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison, CBE (née Haldane; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a Scottish novelist and poet. Often called the doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books of historical fiction, science fiction, travel writing and autobiography. Her husband Dick Mitchison‘s life peerage in 1964 entitled her to call herself Lady Mitchison, but she never did. She was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1981. The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931) is seen by some as the prime 20th-century historical novel.

Naomi Haldane was the daughter of renowned biologist Professor John Scott Haldane and sister of his famous son, Professor J.B.S. Haldane.

Her paternal uncle was Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, Liberal MP for Haddingtonshire from 1885 to 1911, twice Lord Chancellor (from 1912 to 1915 under H. H. Asquith, and in 1924 during the first Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald).

Naomi Mitchison’s third son, Murdoch Mitchison was Professor of Zoology at Edinburgh University. From 1973-1979 Murdoch Mitchison was academic advisor to Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse who I remember and to whom I was introduced over thirty years later in Lausanne. A biography of Murdoch Mitchison was co-authored by Dr Peter Fantes, a Zoology lecturer at Edinburgh who used to begin his lectures sitting crossed legged on his bench.

Murdoch Mitchison’s wife was the historian, Professor Rosalind Mitchison. When she was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, one of her proposers was Professor Charles Kemball, who was Head of the Chemistry department when I was at Edinburgh – I can still remember his lectures. Professor Kemball died at Tyninghame in East Lothian in 1998.

Naomi Mitchison’s fourth son was Avrion Mitchison, Professor of Zoology at University College London, where his uncle J.B.S. Haldane taught, at the National Institute of Medical Research at Mill Hill and as founding Director of the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ) in Germany. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at University College London.

According to Tam Dalyell “The Mitchison women were formidable. Murdoch’s sister Lois was the first European to visit China, before the Cultural Revolution, and write about Mao Tse Tung’s collective farms. His older sister Val married Mark Arnold Foster, one of the most influential journalists of the day. His wife was the eldest of three Miss Wrongs (the youngest of whom married Peter Shore MP), the daughter of a distinguished Oxford Professor and a distinguished social historian in her own right, the acknowledged expert in the Poor Laws. She was the tutor-supervisor of Gordon Brown when he read History at Edinburgh University.“

Naomi Mitchison’s Haldane ancestry can be traced back to Sir Bernard de Haldane, father of Sir John de Haldane, 1st of Gleneagles, who died on 24 October 1456. Many familiar people were descended from Sir Bernard de Haldane including:

Actors & TV personalities: Gabriella Wilde, Rose Leslie – who is married to Kit Harrington, Cara Delevigne, Cary Elwes, Lady Edwina Grosvenor – wife of presenter Dan Snow, the late Margaret Rhodes, cousin of Queen Mother and royal commentator, Archibald Stirling husband of the late actress Diana Rigg and father of Rachel Stirling.

Politicians: Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Nicholas Soames, Sir Iain Gilmour, and East Lothian Provost David Broun-Lindsay of Colstoun.

Other notables: Sir Archibald David Stirling, founder of the SAS, Peter Rodd, husband of Nancy Mitford.

Royals: Prince Albert of Monaco.

Aristocrats:  the current dukes of Roxburgh, of Westminster, of Abercorn and of Marlborough, the current Marquis of Aberdeen & Tremair, the current Earls of Haddington, of Glasgow, of Eglinton & Winton, of Annandale & Hartfell, of Warwick and of Rosebery, the current Lord Elphinstone, Sir William Arbuthnot, 2nd of Kittybrewster, the late Montague Ninian Brodie of Brodie and many more.

Including some well-kent faces from the tiny extract below!