Another portrait of the same sitter
13 March 1861

Volume 2, page 304, sitting number 2508.

'We regret to announce to-day the death of Sir Alexander Penrose Gordon-Cumming of Altyre, Bart., which took place in this city [Edinburgh] on Sunday afternoon, after a long and painful illness, which he bore with fortitude and resignation. Sir Alexander, though not a young man, has been taken away in the middle of his days, and, it might also be said in the fullness of his strength - of a strength naturally great, and augmented and maintained by a life of temperance and activity. 

'At his death he held the office of Deputy-Lieutenant of Morayshire, and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Elginshire Rifle Volunteers. He was one of the principal promoters of the Highland Railway, of which for some years he had been a director. He was an active and intelligent agriculturalist, and interested himself keenly in the improvement of the farms on his estate, besides lending the support of his influence to every organisatiion which had for its object the agricultural or general advancement of the wide district in which he was known. 

'Sir Alexander was the eldest son of Sir William, the second baronet of the line, by his first wife, the eldest daughter of John Campbell, Esq., and granddaughter maternally of the fifth Duke of Argyle. He was born at Altyre in 1816, and was thus fifty years old at his death. Educated at Eton, he entered the army in 1835, and served in one of the Highland regiments during the rebellion in Canada. In 1843 he was appointed Captain of the 4th Light Dragoons, but after two years' service in this regiment he retired from the army. He was gazetted Major in the Inverness-shire Militia of 1853, and in the following year succeeded his father in the baronetcy. Two years afterwards he resigned his commission in order to devote himself more entirely to the duties of his position and the more immediate interests of his neighbourhood. He held the office of Deputy-Lieutenant of Morayshire since 1848, and his commission in the Elginshire Volunteers since 1861. 

'Sir Alexander was in person singularly handsome, and was capable of great bodily effort and endurance. He was zealous and proficient in various field sports, especially in salmon fishing, in which he had scarcely an equal in Scotland. He was also skilled and observant in natural history. Sir Alexander inherited a considerable share of that shrewdness and humour for which his father was famous through the north of Scotland. He leaves a widow, the only daughter of the Rev. Augustus Campbell, Rector of Liverpool. He is succeeded by his son, William Gordon Gordon-Cumming, who is in his eighteenth year. We understand the funeral of Sir Alexander will take place at the burying ground of the family at Gordonstoun' (The Scotsman, 3 September 1866, paragraph breaks added).