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Clifford Arthur Mackain, my 3rd cousin 3 times removed, was the son of William James and Helen Clifford (nee Morecroft) McKain and was born in 1887 at Battle, Sussex, where his father was Curate from 1886 to 1888.
On the death of his father, in 1936, Clifford succeeded him as the 21st Chief of Ardnamurchan (his elder brother, James Fergus, was killed in WW1).
Clifford married Helen Constance Harrison, daughter of Captain Harrison R.N., on 10th March 1937 at Tonbridge, Kent.
Clifford and Helen had one child, Helen Elizabeth, born in 1943.
Educated at Oxford University (Wadham College), Clifford served as a Sub Lieutenant in the RNVR in WW1 and was awarded the Victory and British War Medals. After the war, he went on to be Senior Master at St. Michael's College, Tenbury, Worcestershire and Heath Mount School, Hampstead, London.
In the 1930s, Clifford and Helen lived at Mingary, Ryde on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, where Clifford died, intestate, on 19th August 1959.
In "The Clan Donald" by the Reverends A.Macdonald, published 1904, it was concluded, with regard to the MacIains of Ardnamurchan, that "Alexander (Chief c1609-1625) is the last head of the house of whom there is any authentic record and with him this ancient and powerful house passes out of historical and genealogical ken".
Clifford Arthur Mackain, the 21st Chief of Clan Iain refused to let this be the last word on his illustrious family and, as a result of many years of research, produced his "History and Genealogy of the Ancient House of Ardnamurchan" - 1929, revised 1943, which built on the family's history, through a further three centuries in Scotland and England, and concluded with the defiant and proud declaration that "Although their territorial possessions had gone (1625), the Clan spirit still lived in their descendants, the MacKains of Elgin, and lives today in the present family representing them in direct succession. May this grand spirit ever burn brightly as of yore, and their glorious Clan traditions never be forgotten !".