Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso

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"Archibald Sinclair" redirects here. For the British journalist, see Archibald Sinclair (journalist).

George V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byWilliam Adamson
Succeeded bySir Godfrey Collins
Liberal Chief Whip
In office
1930 – 25 August 1931
LeaderDavid Lloyd George
Preceded byRobert Hutchison
Succeeded byGoronwy Owen
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
7 July 1954[1] – 15 June 1970
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byPeerage created
Succeeded byThe 2nd Viscount Thurso
Member of Parliament
for Caithness and Sutherland
In office
15 November 1922 – 5 July 1945
Preceded byLeicester Harmsworth
Succeeded byEric Gandar Dower
Personal details
Born
Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair

22 October 1890 (1890-10-22)
Caithness, Scotland
Died15 June 1970 (1970-06-16) (aged 79)
Twickenham, London, England
Political partyLiberal
Spouse
Marigold Forbes
​
​
(m. 1918)​
Alma materRoyal Military College, Sandhurst
Signature

Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso,

PC (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a Scottish politician and leader of the Liberal Party.[2]

Background and education

Sinclair was born in 1890 in Caithness, Scotland.[3] Sinclair was the son of a Scottish father, Clarence Granville Sinclair, and his American wife Mabel Sands, daughter of Mahlon Day Sands, and half-sister of Ethel Sands. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father in 1895. He was brought up in families including those of his paternal grandfather Sir Tollemache Sinclair, 3rd Baronet, his uncle William Macdonald Sinclair, and Owen Williams, married to his aunt Nina.[4][5]

Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Sinclair was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1910. In 1912, he succeeded his grandfather, as the fourth Baronet, of Ulbster.[4][6] He became one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, owning an estate of about 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) in Caithness.[4] His recreations included polo and flying: he was a keen aviator. At this period he made a friend of Winston Churchill.[7][8]

Colin Coote in his memoirs wrote of Sinclair's "irresistible charm, allied to the face and figure of an Adonis".[9] The handsome Sinclair was at this period thought of as a possible husband for Nellie Hozier, younger sister of Clementine Churchill.[10]

Military career

Major Archibald Sinclair, seated to the left, with Commanding Officer Winston Churchill 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers officers in 1916

Sinclair served on the Western Front during the First World War, in 1915 as aide de camp to J. E. B. Seely who commanded the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. He rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment.[4]

After Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty, Sinclair served as his second-in-command when Churchill took up command at the beginning of 1916 of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Churchill arranged the transfer with Douglas Haig, who turned down the request that Seely should be moved too, and also refused him Edward Spears.[11][12] They were stationed in the Ploegsteert Wood sector of the Western Front.[4]

Working with Churchill

From 1919 to 1921 Sinclair served as Personal Military Secretary to Churchill, when he returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War, and then accompanied him to the Colonial Office as Private Secretary.[4]

Sinclair's duties included acting as liaison for Churchill with the

humint and technical intelligence for Churchill, for example on Leonid Krasin. He also assisted in the delicate handling of Boris Savinkov, who was brought to London.[13] It was Sinclair who introduced the prominent British agent Sidney Reilly to Nikolai Alekseyev, intelligence chief of the White Russian leader Alexander Guchkov.[14]

Political career 1922–1939

In 1922, Sinclair entered the

House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Caithness and Sutherland,[15] supporting David Lloyd George and defeating the incumbent Liberal supporter of H. H. Asquith. He rose through the Liberal ranks as the party shrank in Parliament, becoming Chief Whip by 1930.[4] At this period he worked on land policy with Lloyd George, including the "Tartan Book" that addressed Scottish devolution.[8][16]

In July 1931, a meeting took place at Sinclair's house, where

Ottawa Conference introducing Imperial Preference.[8][16]

In the

Lord Beaverbrook entertained the idea of Sinclair as Prime Minister. Both Clement Attlee for Labour and Sinclair for the Liberals, however, in late November ruled out forming a government under those circumstances.[21][22]

Sinclair consistently opposed the

Axis Powers.[16][25]

At the time of the

Robert Boothby, Robert Cecil, Harold Macmillan and Harold Nicolson.[26] During parliamentary debate over the Munich Agreement he attacked Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for "wilting" to Nazi Germany and tossing "justice and respect for treaties... to the winds."[27] On a personal level, Violet Bonham Carter was a frequent guest of the Sinclairs at Dalnawillan Lodge in the Flow Country, as were Harcourt Johnstone and Lady Gwendoline Churchill, wife of Jack Churchill and Winston's sister-in-law.[28] Bonham Carter was a Liberal activist, close follower of Churchill, anti-appeaser and League of Nations Union member.[29]

Second World War

When Churchill formed an

Fascist Italy.[30]

Sinclair's first task was to work with the Royal Air Force in planning the Battle of Britain. Towards the end of the war, he found himself at odds with Churchill, arguing against Bomber Harris's strategy for the Bombing of Dresden and other German cities.[31] He was not a strong political personality: Max Hastings reports that he was often regarded as the "Head of School's fag" to Churchill, and as the political mouthpiece rather than the master of Air Chief Marshals Portal and Harris.[32] However, in 1942 he did convince Churchill and his cabinet not to carry out reprisals on German villages for war atrocities such as the Lidice massacre.[33]

Sinclair remained a minister until May 1945, when the coalition ended. In the 1945 general election, he lost his seat. His margin of defeat was narrow: he came in third place, with the victor Eric Gandar Dower having 61 votes more.[4]

Last years

At the 1950 general election, Sinclair again stood for his old seat, coming second. In 1952, the year of his first stroke, he accepted elevation to the House of Lords as Viscount Thurso of Ulbster in the County of Caithness.[34] A more serious stroke in 1959 left him largely bedridden and in a state of precarious health, until he died at his home in Twickenham in 1970.[3][35]

Family

Sketch of Sinclair commissioned by the Ministry of Information in the Second World War period

In 1918 Sinclair married Marigold Forbes (1897–1975), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes and Lady Angela Forbes. They had four children:

  1. Catherine (1919–2007), married 1957
    Kazimierz Zielenkiewicz.[36]
  2. Elizabeth (1921–1994), married in 1942 Archibald Michael Lyle, son of
    Veronica Linklater.[37]
  3. John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso[36]
  4. Angus John (1925-2003), married firstly in 1955 Pamela Karen Bower, daughter of Dallas Bower (dissolved 1967), secondly in 1968 Judith Anne Percy (dissolved 1992), thirdly in 1992 Kate Fry.[36]

Legacy

The Southern Railway named a Battle of Britain Class Light Pacific steam locomotive "Sir Archibald Sinclair". The ceremonial naming of the locomotive was performed by Sir Archibald himself at Waterloo station on 24 February 1948. The SR number of the locomotive was 21C159 and its British Railways number was 34059.

References

  1. ^ "Viscount Thurso (1954)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 7 July 1954.
  2. ^ Full coverage of his career appears in Gerard DeGroot, Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair (New York University Press, 1993).
  3. ^ a b "Lors Thurso, LED British Libels". The New York Times. 17 June 1970. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36108. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. ISBN 978-1-85065-182-6
    .
  6. ^ Wilson, Malcolm Sands (1949). Descendants of James Sands of Block Island. With notes on the Walker, Hutchinson, Ray, Guthrie, Palgrave, Cornell, Ayscough, Middagh, Holt, and Henshaw families. New York, Priv. Print. p. 54.
  7. ISBN 978-0-300-23404-6
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-87436-990-8
    .
  9. ^ Coote, Colin (1965). Editorial: The Memoirs of Colin R. Coote. Eyre & Spottiswoode. p. 159.
  10. ISBN 978-1-4735-2171-1
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-84275-040-7
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-245-54779-9
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-349-12107-9
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-922915-79-8
    .
  15. ^ "No. 32775". The London Gazette. 8 December 1922. p. 8712.
  16. ^
    ISBN 1902301099
    .
  17. ISBN 978-0-670-86999-2
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0-7139-0969-2
    .
  19. ^ "No. 33748". The London Gazette. 28 August 1931. p. 5616.
  20. ^ "No. 33748". The London Gazette. 28 August 1931. p. 5615.
  21. ^ Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, Earl of Birkenhead (1969). Walter Monckton. The Life of Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. London. p. 138.
  22. ISBN 978-0-571-30940-5
    .
  23. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8
    .
  24. ISBN 978-1-135-27090-2
    .
  25. ISBN 978-1-85065-182-6
    .
  26. ^ Bouverie 2019, p. xvi.
  27. ^ Bouverie 2019, p. 289.
  28. ISBN 978-1-85065-182-6
    .
  29. ISBN 1902301099
    .
  30. ^ Bouverie 2019, p. 406.
  31. ^ Groot, Gerard De. Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair. p. 204.
  32. ^ Hastings 1979, p. 133.
  33. ISBN 978-0-141-02926-9 – via Archive Foundation.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link
    )
  34. ^ "No. 39516". The London Gazette. 15 April 1952. p. 2077.
  35. ^ "John Thurso: The hereditary peer who became an MP". BBC News. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  36. ^
    ISBN 033354577X
    .
  37. ISBN 033354577X
    .

Bibliography

External links

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Leicester Harmsworth, Bt
 Member of Parliament for Caithness and Sutherland
1922–1945 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State for Scotland
1931–1932 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State for Air
1940–1945 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by
Liberal Chief Whip

1930–1931 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
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1931–1935? 		Vacant
Title next held by
Percy Harris
Preceded by
Leader of the Liberal Party

1935–1945 		Succeeded by
New post President of the Scottish Liberal Party
1946–1965
With: John Bannerman 1963–1965 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
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1919–1964 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Rector of the University of Glasgow
1938–1945 		Succeeded by
John Boyd Orr
Baronetage of Great Britain
Preceded by Baronet
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1912–1970 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Thurso
1952–1970 		Succeeded by
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