Updated
Monday, 10th May 2021, 11:02 am
Molly Forbes with James Guthrie’s To Pastures New, which inspired a portrait of her by Alicia Bruce (Picture: Copyright Alicia Bruce www.aliciabruce.co.uk)
Molly Forbes would not have expected her obituary to appear in a national newspaper. A retired caterer, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she enjoyed living quietly on her son’s land in Aberdeenshire – until their way of life came under threat from one of the most powerful men in the world.
Molly and her neighbours found themselves cast as the unlikely opponents of Donald Trump when he tried to have them evicted from their land at Menie, north of Aberdeen, to make room for his luxury golf resort. During the development, Trump had a wall built around their property so that visitors to the resort would not have to see them, and Molly and her family lived for five years without a reliable water supply.
Last modified on Wed 5 May 2021 13.14 EDT
Molly Forbes, who has died aged 96, will be remembered by many as the Scottish woman who stood up to Donald Trump.
When Trump tried to buy the Forbes’ farm for his Aberdeenshire golfing resort, the family resisted. He attempted to have compulsory purchase orders taken out, saying at a press conference in 2010 that the farm was “a pigsty”, “slumlike” and “disgusting”. Molly responded with a banner across her hen shed reading: “TRUMP THE GREATEST LIAR”. Trump did not succeed in buying the farm. The golf course was opened on 10 July 2012 but the luxury hotel was never built.