While most people mark a milestone birthday with a trip or jewelry, John 'Jock' Elliott did something far bigger in 1986. According to an account published by the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA, this American advertising executive bought his wife Eleanor, known to her friends as Elly, an entire Scottish island, as a gift for her 60th birthday. But the couple, as per the National Trust for Scotland, the charity which has cared for the island ever since, did not keep the gift, handing it over the same year instead.
A love for Scotland, not a trophy purchase
Behind the gesture was a couple with deep roots in Scotland. Elliott, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 84, was the former chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the world's leading advertising agencies, according to the Boston Globe's obituary. Records held by the charity's US affiliate show that Jock and Elly visited Scotland for more than 30 years before they purchased Staffa Island. They were drawn to its dramatic beauty, not to the idea of a private retreat.
