Danus George Moncrieff Skene was born on 2 April 1944, at Dundee, in Scotland.  At the time, his father Robert William Dugald Skene was away doing his bit for the Allied military effort in Italy, and his grandfather Philip George Moncrieff Skene sadly had only a few months more to live. 

Danus’ mother was born Elizabeth Diana Wolfe Sutherland.  The name Wolfe came into her family through the provisions of the will of General James Wolfe, who was killed in the hour of his victory in taking Quebec from the French in 1759.  The Sutherlands were originally from Caithness, but Danus’ grandfather George Sutherland spent most of his life in India as a successful businessman. 

The Skenes had lived since 1683 at the property of Pitlour, in Fife.  The beautiful mansion house there was built by the bachelor brothers Robert and Philip Skene in 1784.  The family were not the ‘Head of Name’ of Skene: the name originated in Aberdeenshire, where the Skenes of Skene lived  in the House of Skene.  The Skenes of Pitlour were however descended from Andrew Skene of Auchorie, a younger son of the Skene of Skene of the day, who moved from Aberdeenshire to Fife in about 1600.  The Pitlour family knew that they were a senior branch of the family, and that there was no other landowning branch in Scotland following the death of the last of the family of Skene of Skene in Aberdeenshire in 1828.

Danus’great-great-grandfather Patrick George Skene, for instance, had a set of Worcester china made in the 1840s on which the coat of arms clearly indicates that the Skene of Pitlour considered himself to be the second House of Skene after the Skenes of Skene. 

Danus thus grew up knowing that his family had an ancient pedigree, but assuming that there was no ‘Chief’ of the name of Skene, but that the chiefly line had died out.  In 1962, Danus’ parents sadly divorced, and his home came to be with his mother, beside lovely Loch Tummel, in Perthshire. 

Sent by his family to school in England, Danus had continued to the University of Sussex, where he followed up his lifelong fascination with Africa, and the relation of Scotland and Britain to that continent.  Following graduation in 1966, he went to Uganda for two years before entering the PhD programme in Political Science at the University of Chicago.  Leaving with an MA, Danus returned to Britain, and eventually to Scotland, where he qualified at the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen as a High School teacher.  At Aberdeen, he met his wife Audrey, also a teacher.  While Hannah and Dugald and Abi were young children, they lived in different parts of the north and east of Scotland as teaching posts dictated. 

In the early 1990s, members of the US-based Clan Skene Association contacted Danus as part of checking out who might be the head of the Clan given the demise of the direct line of the Skenes of Skene all those years ago.  Investigation of family history resulted in the Lord Lyon accepting the opinion that the Skenes of Pitlour were indeed the senior surviving family of the name of Skene, and in February 1994, Danus matriculated his coat of arms as Skene of Skene, and Clan Skene has a chief again!  In line with the irony that ‘clan’ is now a more powerful identity in the Scottish diaspora than in Scotland itself, Danus sealed his recognition as Skene of Skene with a major visit to the United States in 1996, when he was Guest of Honour at Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.  He and all the family had a wonderful time. 

In 1997, Danus left the regular teaching service in Scottish schools, and has worked for brief periods as Principal of the Church of Scotland school in Israel, and as Principal of a school in Kenya. 

In 1999, Danus and Audrey took the sad decision to sell the family inheritance of Pitlour estate.  The resources required to restore it and keep it in good condition were just too much.  They have now finally found the home they seek a few miles away, at the little town of Milnathort. 

In 2001, Danus has returned to Scotland, and hopes to lead many active years involved in education, the Church, community life, and the presentation of his passion for Scotland to others. 

Chief Danus Skene maintains a personal web site at www.skeneofskene.com.  

Click here to read Danus' article The Title Skene of Skene.