David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford

David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford

David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford, 10th Earl of Balcarres KT PC FRS (born October 10, 1871 in Dunecht , Aberdeenshire , Scotland , † March 8, 1940 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party .

He held numerous ministerial offices in the coalition government of Prime Ministers Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George from July 11, 1916 to October 19, 1922 and was successively Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1916, Keeper of the Lord Seal from 1916 to 1919 , and Chancellor of the Duchy between 1919 and 1921 of Lancaster , 1921 to 1922 Minister of Public Works and 1922 Minister of Transport. Most recently he served as Chancellor of the University of Manchester from 1923 until his death in 1940 .

Life

Family origins and siblings

David Lindsay came from the Scottish noble family Lindsay and was a descendant of David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford († 1407). He was the second of seven children and the eldest son of James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford , who was a member of the House of Commons between 1874 and 1880 and was a member of the House of Lords from 1880. His mother was Emily Florence Bootle-Wilbraham. As his father's apparent marriage , he carried the courtesy title of Lord Balcerres from 1880 to 1913 .

His eldest and only sister, Lady Evelyn Margaret Lindsay, was married to Conservative Party politician James Francis Mason , who represented Windsor constituency in the House of Commons between 1906 and 1918 . His younger brother Walter Patrick Lindsay served as a captain in the First World War in the 12th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) , while his younger brother Robert Hamilton Lindsay served in the Second Boer War and later as a major in The Royal Scots Grays (2nd Dragoons) was used in British India , but died in 1911.

Other younger brothers were the Catholic clergyman Edward Reginald Lindsay and the diplomat Ronald Charles Lindsay , who was ambassador to Turkey between 1925 and 1926, ambassador to the German Reich from 1926 to 1928 , permanent undersecretary of state in the Foreign Ministry between 1928 and 1930, and most recently from 1930 to 1939 Ambassador to the USA . His youngest brother Lionel Lindsay also took part in the First World War as captain of the 16th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps and was honored for his special services with an entry in the war diary ( Mentioned in dispatches ) and with the Military Cross .

Degree, Member of the House of Commons and Junior Minister

Lord Balcarres graduated after attending the prestigious Eton College studying at Magdalen College of the University of Oxford , which he described as Bachelor of Arts graduated (BA). He also served in the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and was last promoted to captain.

His political career began in 1895 when he was elected as a candidate for the Conservative Tories on June 7, 1895 in the British House of Commons and represented the constituency of Chorley until January 31, 1913 . During this time he was also involved in the Society of Antiquaries of London , whose Fellow (FSA) he became on December 20, 1900, and in 1903 as trustee of the National Portrait Gallery London .

He held his first government office during the tenure of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour and served as Junior Lord of the Treasury between 1903 and 1905 . He temporarily held the post of Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Lancashire and received an honorary doctorate in law (Honorary Doctor of Law) from the University of St Andrews in 1911 .

Most recently he served as Parliamentary Secretary (Chief Whip ) of the Conservatives in the House of Commons from 1911 to 1913 . He was instrumental in arranging the Carlton Club meeting in November 1911 and the subsequent election of Andrew Bonar Law as the new Chairman of the House of Commons.

Member of the House of Lords and Minister of the National Liberal Coalitions 1916 to 1922

Coat of arms of the Earls of Crawford

When his father died on January 31, 1913, David Lindsay inherited the title of 27th Earl of Crawford , 10th Earl of Balcerres , 10th Lord Lindsay and Balneil , 11th Lord Lindsay of Balcerres and 4th Baron Wigan and was up to member of the House of Lords on his death. He also followed his father as Chief of Clan Lindsay .

During World War II he was after the formation of the first National-Liberal coalition government appointed by Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith on July 11, 1916 in his first ministerial post and held until 5 December 1916 as the successor of William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne the office of Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries) and was also appointed a member of the Privy Council .

After taking office as Prime Minister, David Lloyd George reshuffled the cabinet; so the Earl of Crawford was appointed by this on December 15, 1916 as successor to George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston to Lord Privy Seal (Lord Privy Seal) , while Rowland Prothero took over the office of Minister of Agriculture. As part of a recent cabinet reshuffle, he handed over the office of Lord Seal Keeper on January 10, 1919 to Andrew Bonar Law .

He himself then succeeded William Hayes Fisher, 1st Baron Downham as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on January 10, 1919 and remained in this post until Lloyd George reorganized the government on April 1, 1921. This time he took over from Alfred Mond as Minister for Public Works and Buildings (First Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings) . At the same time, he took over on April 19, 1922 from William Peel, 1st Earl Peel , the office of Minister of Transport (Minister of Transport) , which he also held until October 19, 1922. After Lloyd George's resignation on October 19, 1922, forced by a backbencher revolt , he also resigned.

University of Manchester Chancellor, Honors and Awards

In 1921 he became a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (Knight of the Thistle) beaten. He was also awarded the Officer's Cross of the Leopold Order of Belgium and temporarily served as Colonel of Honor of the 5th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment .

The Earl of Crawford, who received another honorary doctorate in law from the University of Manchester in 1923, took over the office of Chancellor of the University of Manchester in 1923, which he held until his death. In 1924 he was also awarded an honorary doctorate in civil law from the University of Cambridge (Honorary Doctor of Civil Law) and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). In addition, he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSA Scot) and received in 1926 another honorary Doctor of Laws (Honorary Doctor of Law) of the University of Edinburgh , and in 1928 an honorary Doctor of Literature (Honorary Doctor of Literature) of the University of Liverpool .

Marriage and offspring

David Lindsay, Lord Balcarres, married on January 25, 1900 in St Margaret's Church of Westminster Constance Lilian Pelly, daughter of Henry Carstairs Pelly , who was a Member of the House of Commons between 1874 and his death in 1877.

From this marriage two sons and six daughters were born. The eldest son, David Alexander Robert Lindsay , was also a member of the House of Commons from 1924 to 1940 and after the death of his father in 1940 inherited the title of 28th Earl of Crawford and the subordinate titles of nobility and thus became a member of the House of Lords. He was also Rector of the University of St Andrews between 1952 and 1955 and is the father of the current 29th Earl of Crawford, Robert Alexander Lindsay , who is also the most senior Earl of Scotland and the hereditary head of the Lindsay clan .

The eldest daughter, Lady Margaret Cynthia Lindsay, was married to Henry Cyril Harker Illingworth, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the King's Royal Rifle Corps and was awarded the Military Cross. The second eldest daughter, Lady Cynthia Anne Lindsay, was her first marriage to the Swedish diplomat Per Erik Folke Arnander, who, however, was the first secretary at the Legation in Italy to be killed in a car accident in 1933, and her second marriage to the Italian banker Giovanni Fummi .

His second son James Louis Lindsay took part in World War II as a major in the King's Royal Rifle Corps and represented the Conservative Party as a member of the House of Commons from 1955 to 1959. The third oldest daughter, Lady Elizabeth Patricia Lindsay, died unmarried in 1937 at the age of 29.

The fourth eldest daughter, Lady Mary Lilian Lindsay, was married to the well-known politician and lawyer Reginald Manningham-Buller , who was a member of the House of Commons between 1943 and 1962 and held the positions of Solicitor General , Attorney General and Lord Chancellor in succession , and as 1st Baron in 1962 Dilhorne and in 1964 finally as 1st Viscount Dilhorne was raised to hereditary nobility and was thus also a member of the House of Lords. From this marriage came the current 2nd Viscount Dilhorne , John Mervyn Manningham-Buller , and Eliza Manningham-Buller , the 2002-2007 General Director of the Federal Security Service Security Service was (MI5) and 2008 as Life Peeress with the Baroness Manningham-Buller in the Nobility was raised and thus became a member of the House of Lords.

His fifth eldest daughter, Lady Katharine Constance Lindsay, was the wife of Godfrey Nicholson, 1st Baronet , who also represented the interests of the conservative Tories as a member of the House of Commons from 1931 to 1966 with a brief interruption. From this marriage emerged among others the politician Emma Harriet Nicholson , who later became Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne . His youngest daughter, Lady Barbara Lindsay, eventually married Richard Lumley Hurst, who served as a colonel in the Royal Sussex Regiment and later served as a barrister .

literature

• David Lindsay: The Crawford Papers: The journals of David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarres, 1871-1940, during the years 1892 to 1940 . Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1984. (Edited version of the Diaries of the Earl of Crawford by John Vincent.)

Web links

Commons : David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Lord Balcarres at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford on thepeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
James Lindsay	Earl of Crawford Earl of Balcarres 1913-1940	David Lindsay