George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk
George Nigel Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk KT GCMG GBE PC QC (born January 4, 1906 in Merley, Wimborne Minster , Dorset , England ; † November 24, 1994 ) was a British Group Captain of the Royal Air Force , diplomat and Conservative Party politician who was a member of the House of Lords for almost 50 years and held several ministerial offices.
Life
Origin, Earl of Selkirk and World War II
George Douglas-Hamilton came from an old noble family and was the second son of Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton . He himself studied after visiting the Eton College at Balliol College of Oxford University and then law at the University of Edinburgh , where he a doctor of law acquired. During his student days he played cricket for the Wiltshire County Cricket Club and took part in its team in 1927 at the Minor Counties Cricket Championship . In the meantime, he completed guest studies at the University of Paris , the University of Vienna and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and, after being admitted to the bar in 1935, worked as a lawyer in Scotland .
At the same time he began his political career in local politics and was a member of the Edinburgh City Council between 1935 and 1940 and commander of No. 603 Squadron RAF of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAAF), the Royal Air Force (RAF) active volunteer reserve. In 1938, Douglas-Hamilton, who was deputy administrator of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh from 1937 until his death , received the Air Force Cross and also became an honorary citizen (Freeman) of Hamilton .
After the death of his father in 1940, he followed this due to a special regulation from 1688 regarding the successor titles as Earl of Selkirk and Baron Dare and Shortclough , while his older brother Douglas Douglas-Hamilton inherited the titles Duke of Hamilton and Duke of Brandon .
With Britain's entry into World War II , he joined the RAF as Group Captain in 1940 and was Chief Intelligence Officer and Special Assistant to Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding , commander of the RAF Fighter Command . For his services there he was Mentioned twice in Despatches and in 1941 an officer of the Order of the British Empire .
Member of the House of Lords and Minister
After the Second World War, Douglas-Hamilton was elected as Representative Peer for Scotland in 1945 under the Act of Union 1707 to a member of the House of Lords , to which he belonged as a representative of the Conservative Party until his death in 1994, the election of Representative Peers with the The Peerage Act 1963 was abolished and all Scottish peers were given a seat in the House of Lords.
Between 1951 and 1953 he was Whip the Conservative government faction in the House of Lords with the formal title of Lord-in-Waiting in the court of King George VI. or Queen Elizabeth II.
He was then from November 1953 to December 1955 Paymaster General during the tenure of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and then until January 1957 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the extended cabinet of Prime Minister Anthony Eden . In 1955 he also became a member of the Privy Council . He was then Lord High Admiral and First Lord of the Admiralty between January 1957 and October 1959 during the tenure of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan .
High Commissioner, Honors and Awards
In 1959 he was appointed High Commissioner in Singapore . During this office, which he held until 1963, he was also General Commissioner for Southeast Asia and, from 1960 to 1963, British representative at SEATO .
During this time he became Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and Crown Attorney in 1959, and then in 1963 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire. In 1967 he became honorary chief of the Saulteaux , one of the First Nations of Canada and an honorary citizen of Winnipeg and Selkirk .
In 1976 he was finally accepted into the Thistle Order , the second highest order of British knights .
Web links
- George Earl of Selkirk in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
- British Ministries (rulers.org)
Individual evidence
- ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Volume Fü III, page 361, CA Starke-Verlag, 1955
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Alfred Douglas-Hamilton |
Earl of Selkirk 1940-1994 |
James Douglas-Hamilton |
| Quintin McGarel Hogg |
First Lord of the Admiralty 1957-1959 |
Peter Carington |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Douglas-Hamilton, George, 10th Earl of Selkirk |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Selkirk, George Nigel Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th January 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Merley, Wimborne Minster , Dorset , England , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 24, 1994 |