HE was the youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton. She was known as Britain’s 'perfect girl'.
No wonder there was intense media interest (above) in the wedding at Glasgow Cathedral, in October 1938, of Lord David Douglas-Hamilton, and Miss Prunella Stack, a keep-fit pioneer and leader of the Women’s League of Health and Beauty, an organisation that had been launched by her mother, Mary.
David, an RAF squadron leader, was killed in 1944, leaving Prunella to raise their two young children on her own. She re-married in 1950, to Alistair Albers, a surgeon. He fell to his death in a climbing accident in his native South Africa in 1951.
In April 1990 Prunella, then 74, met the Glasgow Herald’s Jean Donald, whose article began: "She says she's a bit on the skinny side these days but the lady who was known as the 'perfect girl' in the late 1920s still looks pretty good -- in a dark green suede skirt, chocolate-coloured sweater, and matching brown tights -- and is still an inspiration to thousands of women.
"This Saturday [she] will lead the celebrations as over 15,000 women from all over the world, many of them three generations of the same family, meet to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the organisation [by now known as Health and Beauty Exercise] that the worldly-wise used to snigger at in the sixties."
Prunella died in December 2010, aged 96. “To her end,” said one obituary, she “remained physically and mentally flexible, ready for whatever came next.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here