Lady Helen Colquhoun

Lady Helen Sutherland 1717–1791 (born Helen Gordon), was the daughter of William Gordon Sutherland, Lord Strathnaver and Catherine Morrison. She was the granddaughter of the 16th Earl of Sutherland. 

In April 1740 she married Sir James Colquhoun, 1st Baronet of Luss, with whom she had 8 children.

Sir James Colquhoun had bought the land the town is now on in 1752, and it was named for Lady Helen around 1785.

The family did not live in the town, their home was at Rossdhu, 3 miles to the south of Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond, where Sir James built a grand Georgian manor house, completed in 1773. The building is now the home of Loch Lomond Golf Club.

A modern sculpture representing Lady Helen can now be seen on the side of the Helensburgh and Lomond Civic Centre on Clyde Street. The sculpture was designed by John McKenna, and the £15,000 cost was paid from the Templeton Fund.

Lady Helen Colquhoun. CC BY-SA 4.0 James Pearson, formerly historian of the Clan Colquhoun Society https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colquhoun,_lady_helen.jpg
Lady Helen Colquhoun. Image source: Wikimedia. Credit: James Pearson, formerly historian of the Clan Colquhoun Society

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