Born 25 February 1929; died 10 July 2025
Lady Byatt was not an academic historian, but over the years she acquired a deep knowledge of the special topics that interested her. She was born in Houston, Renfrewshire, on 25 February 1929 to Ian and May Coats. Her father was a director of the family cotton manufacturing business and Fiona had many memories of the mills in Paisley. Although she left school with a distinction in her General School Leaving certificate, she was a late reader and always felt she might have dyslexia had the term meant anything at the time.
A short nursing career at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London was set aside when she married Hugh Campbell Byatt in 1954. This was the gateway to a long and distinguished diplomatic career – ‘two for the price of one’ was a phrase often used and in Fiona’s case this was more than justified. Nigeria and India were Commonwealth Office postings, then with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office came Portugal, Mozambique, Kenya, Angola, and finally Portugal again, this time as the ambassador’s wife. In each country, Fiona went to great lengths to become acquainted with local history and culture, and to make and promote connections with Scotland and Scottish history. This was particularly true of her time in Lisbon.
Her interest in local history reached its culmination after she and Hugh retired to Argyll to the family home that she loved. Lady Campbell Byatt became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland in 1989 and her membership did not lapse until a few months before her death in July this year.
Her childhood close acquaintance and neighbour Marion Campbell (also a Fellow of the Society) helped Fiona toward a burgeoning interest in the archaeology and history of mid-Argyll. Fiona was a supporter of the Kilmartin House Trust and later a founding member of Kilmartin Museum. Her name is also on the wall of donors who supported the rebuilding of the new Kilmartin Museum, opened in July 2025 by HRH, The Princess Royal.
She wrote ten or more articles for The Kist, the journal of the Natural History and Antiquarian Society of Mid Argyll, founded by Marion Campbell in 1955; all the issues are now hosted on the museum website in Kilmartin. The topics Fiona chose to research and write about included family connections (such as the Coats family’s support for voyages first to the Arctic and then in 1902 to Antarctica) and local history (with a particular interest in the earliest settlements and maps of Argyll).
She was particularly grateful to Dr Alison Sheridan FSAScot and others, whether at the National Museum of Scotland or the National Library Scotland Map Library, for sharing their expertise in enjoyable conversations and visits. Above all, Fiona had a gift for inspiring the younger family members and other youngsters she met with a love of history. This made her a true ambassador for history and for Scotland
By Dr Lucinda Byatt (Granozio) FSAScot FIT
Image: Lady Byatt at Kilmartin Museum with Sharon Webb (Credit: Lucinda Byatt).
