James Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn

Infobox Person
name = James Gray Stuart


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1897|2|9|df=y
birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland
death_date = death date and age|1971|2|20|1897|2|9|df=y
death_place =
occupation = Politician
spouse = Lady Rachel Cavendish

James Gray Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn CH MVO MC and Bar PC (9 February 1897 - 20 February 1971) was a Scottish Tory politician.

Born in Edinburgh, Stuart was the son of Morton Gray Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray, and Edith Douglas Palmer.

Stuart was commissioned into the Royal Scots (Special Reserve) and served in the First World War, reaching the rank of Captain and winning the Military Cross and Bar.

In 1923, he married Lady Rachel Cavendish, daughter of the 9th Duke of Devonshire (and sister of Dorothy Cavendish, wife of Harold Macmillan). He had earlier been noted as a suitor of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

From 1923 to 1959 he was Member of Parliament for Moray and Nairn, succeeded by Gordon Campbell. Stuart was made a Privy Councillor in 1939. He was Tory Chief Whip from 1941 to 1948, and joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1941 to 1945. He was also Chairman of the Scottish Unionist Party from 1950 to 1962.

Stuart was Secretary of State for Scotland from October 1951 until January 1957 in the governments of Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. He was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1957. On 20 November 1959 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stuart of Findhorn, of Findhorn in the County of Moray.

Trivia

On 26 November 1950, his brother-in-law Edward Cavendish, the 10th Duke of Devonshire had a heart attack whilst visiting Eastbourne. He was attended by John Bodkin Adams, the suspected serial killer, who was present when he died. The coroner was not notified as he should have been, despite the fact that the Duke had not seen a doctor in the 14 days before his death. Adams himself signed the death certificate stating that the Duke died of natural causes. 13 days before, Mrs Edith Alice Morrell, another patient of Adams, had also died. Adams was tried in 1957 for her murder but acquitted. Home office pathologist Francis Camps linked Adams to 163 suspicious deaths in total. [Cullen, Pamela V., "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9]

References

* Torrance, David, "The Scottish Secretaries" (Birlinn 2006)
* Stuart, James; Viscount Stuart of Findhorn. "Within the Fringe: An Autobiography"