David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford

The Right Honourable The Earl of Crawford KT PC, DL, FRS, FSA
President of the Board of Agriculture
In office 11 July 1916 – 5 December 1916
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	The Earl of Selborne
Succeeded by	Rowland Prothero
Lord Privy Seal
In office 15 December 1916 – 10 January 1919
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Earl Curzon of Kedleston
Succeeded by	Andrew Bonar Law
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 10 January 1919 – 1 April 1921
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Lord Downham
Succeeded by	The Viscount Peel
First Commissioner of Works
In office 1 April 1921 – 19 October 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Sir Alfred Mond, Bt
Succeeded by	Sir John Baird, Bt
Minister of Transport
In office 12 April 1922 – 19 October 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Viscount Peel
Succeeded by	Sir John Baird, Bt
Personal details
Born	10 October 1871 (1871-10-10) Dunecht, Aberdeenshire
Died	8 March 1940 (1940-03-09)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Constance Pelly (d. 1947)
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford

David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarres KT, PC, DL, FRS^[1], FSA (10 October 1871 – 8 March 1940), styled Lord Balniel between 1880 and 1913, was a British Conservative politician and art connoisseur.

Background and education

Born at Dunecht, Aberdeenshire, Crawford was the eldest son of James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres and his wife Emily Florence, daughter of Colonel the Hon. Edward Bootle-Wilbraham. The Hon. Sir Ronald Lindsay was his younger brother. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford.^[2]

His family had extensive mining interests on the Lancashire Coalfield at Haigh near Wigan where his family had a seat at Haigh Hall. He was chairman of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company and its successor the Wigan Coal Corporation.^[3]

Political career

Crawford was elected Member of Parliament for Chorley in 1895^[2][4] and served as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1903 to 1905 under Arthur Balfour. After the Conservatives went into opposition in 1905 he was Chief Conservative Whip in the House of Commons between 1911 and 1913. The latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords (in virtue of his junior title of Baron Wigan, which was in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).^[2] In July 1916 Crawford was admitted to the Privy Council^[5] and appointed President of the Board of Agriculture, with a seat in the cabinet, in the coalition government of H. H. Asquith.^[6]

When David Lloyd George became Prime Minister in December 1916, Crawford became Lord Privy Seal.^[7] In January 1919 Lloyd George appointed him Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,^[2] but removed him from the cabinet. He was made First Commissioner of Works in April 1921,^[8] and in April of the following year he was also made Minister of Transport,^[9] and restored to the cabinet. He retained these two posts until the coalition government fell in October 1922.^[2]

Apart from his political career Crawford was Chancellor of the University of Manchester between 1922 and 1940, a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1900 and of the Royal Society^[1] in 1924 and was made a Knight of the Thistle in 1921.^[2]

Family

Lord Crawford married Constance Lilian, daughter of Sir Henry Pelly, 3rd Baronet, in 1900. They had eight children, two sons and six daughters. One daughter, Lady Mary Lilian Lindsay (1910–2004), married Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain from 1962 to 1964. Their youngest son the Hon. James Lindsay was Member of Parliament for Devon North. Their second daughter was Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director-General of MI5 from 2002 to 2007. Lord and Lady Crawford's fifth daughter Lady Katharine Constance Lindsay married Sir Godfrey Nicholson, 1st Baronet, and was the mother of Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne.

Lord Crawford died in March 1940, aged 68, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son David, Lord Balniel. The Countess of Crawford died in January 1947.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Bragg, W. H. (1941). "David Lindsay, Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. 1871-1940". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 3 (9): 404. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1941.0011.  edit
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} thepeerage.com David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford
3. ^ The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, The Rt. Hon., Durham Mining Museum, http://www.dmm.org.uk/whoswho/c035.htm, retrieved 2011-02-07 
4. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Chichester to Clitheroe
5. ^ London Gazette: no. 29667. p. 6975. 14 July 1916.
6. ^ London Gazette: no. 29667. p. 6977. 14 July 1916.
7. ^ London Gazette: no. 29875. p. 12471. 22 December 1916.
8. ^ London Gazette: no. 32292. p. 2989. 15 April 1922.
9. ^ London Gazette: no. 32677. p. 3135. 21 April 1922.

Further reading

• Lindsay, David (1984) 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; edited by John Vincent. Manchester: Manchester University Press

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Balcarres
• Portraits of Earl of Crawford at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Works by David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford at Project Gutenberg

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Joseph Feilden	Member of Parliament for Chorley 1895 – 1913	Succeeded by Sir Henry Flemming Hibbert
Political offices
Preceded by Henry Torrens Anstruther Hon. Ailwyn Fellowes Henry Forster	Lord of the Treasury 1903 – 1905 With: Hon. Ailwyn Fellowes 1903–1905 Henry Forster 1903–1905 Lord Edmund Talbot 1905	Succeeded by Herbert Lewis Jack Pease Freeman Freeman-Thomas Cecil Norton
Preceded by The Earl of Selborne	President of the Board of Agriculture 1916	Succeeded by Rowland Prothero
Preceded by The Earl Curzon of Kedleston	Lord Privy Seal 1916 – 1919	Succeeded by Andrew Bonar Law
Preceded by The Lord Downham	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1919 – 1921	Succeeded by The Viscount Peel
Preceded by Sir Alfred Mond, Bt	First Commissioner of Works 1921 – 1922	Succeeded by Sir John Baird, Bt
Preceded by The Viscount Peel	Minister of Transport 1922
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by James Ludovic Lindsay	Earl of Crawford 1913 – 1940	Succeeded by David Alexander Lindsay

Persondata
Name	Crawford, David Lindsay, 27th Earl of
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	10 October 1871
Place of birth	Dunecht, Aberdeenshire
Date of death	8 March 1940
Place of death