John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland

John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland, GCSI, GCIE (7 July 1860 – 11 January 1925) was a Scottish politician.

Captain John Sinclair of Lyth was the grandson of Sir John Sinclair of Barrock, 6th baronet of Dunbeath, and descended from George Sinclair of Mey (himself third son of the 4th Earl of Caithness), who died 1616. He was thus a distant cousin of the contemporary Earls of Caithness who were descended from the 7th Baronet, of Mey.

At first he followed a military career, before becoming Liberal Member of Parliament for Dunbartonshire from 1892 to 1895 and for Forfarshire from 1897 to 1909. He then acted as Parliamentary Secretary to Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman for many years.

On 12 July 1904 he married Lady Marjorie Adeline Gordon (7 December 1880–26 July 1970), elder daughter of his former patron the 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair. Pentland had been Aide-de-Camp and Official Secretary to Lord Aberdeen in Ireland (while serving as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1886) and in Canada (while Lord Aberdeen was Governor-General).

He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1905 and was Secretary for Scotland from 1905 to 1912. He was created Baron Pentland of Lyth, Caithnessshire on 15 February 1909. He served as Governor of Madras from 1912 to 1919.

Family

Lord and Lady Pentland had two children:

# Henry John Sinclair, 2nd and last Lord Pentland (b 6 June 1907 d 1984); succeeded his father 1925, also known as a former president of The Gurdjieff Foundation of New York; married 11 September 1941 Lucy Elisabeth Smith; they had issue 1 daughter, who is married, and lives in New York.
# Hon. Margaret Ishbel Sinclair (b October 1906)

John Sinclair died in 1925, and was succeeded by his son.

ources

* [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/descendants/chap31.htm Biography of Lord Aberdeen, father-in-law to Lord Pentland]
* [http://worldroots.com/brigitte/famous/m02/maryenglanddesc1496-109.htm Descendants of Mary Tudor, Princess of England, Queen of France]
* [http://www.clansinclaircanada.ca/docs/peers.htm Some Sinclair peers]
* [http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ss4as/sinclair06.htm Sir John Sinclair of Barrock, 6th Bt, of Dunbeath is Lord Pentland's ancestor]

Torrance, David, "The Scottish Secretaries" (Birlinn 2006)