Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane
Lord Temporal | |
---|---|
Hereditary peerage 27 March 1911 – 19 August 1928 | |
Member of Parliament for Haddingtonshire | |
In office 18 December 1885 – 27 March 1911 | |
Preceded by | Hugo Charteris |
Succeeded by | John Hope |
Personal details | |
Born | Edinburgh, Scotland | 30 July 1856
Died | 19 August 1928 Auchterarder, Scotland | (aged 72)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Liberal (1879–1923) Labour (1923–1928) |
Education | University of Göttingen University of Edinburgh |
Profession | Barrister |
Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane,
Raised to the peerage as
Background and education
Haldane was born at 17
He received his first education at the Edinburgh Academy, and then at the University of Göttingen.[1] He gained a first and MA at University of Edinburgh where he received first-class honours in Philosophy and was Gray scholar and Ferguson scholar.[2]
After studying law in London, he was
Haldane was a deep thinker, an unusual breed: a philosopher-politician. During his stay at Göttingen he expanded an interest in the German philosophers, Schopenhauer and Hegel. He had refused a place at Balliol, but in nodding respect for the Master and philosopher,
Early political career
A cousin, the Whig politician
In November 1885, Haldane was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for
Liberal Imperialist
Focusing on his writings, Haldane was passed over for political office, being the only one of his group left out in the wilderness. Haldane remained an ally of Asquith and Grey in the
At a meeting with Beatrice Webb Haldane told her he was disconsolate at the condition of the Liberal Party: "Rot has set in there is no hope now but to be beaten and then reconstruct a new party".[a] The leaders of the party were exasperated and believed Rosebery to lack planning and direction. "Although Asquith, Grey and I", wrote Haldane, "stuck by him... we never knew when he would retire and leave us in the lurch".[12] When Rosebery offered the Speakership, he refused it that March.[13] However, on 11 October 1896, he wrote to Rosebery that he "was the leader of a revolution in our party".[2]
On 11 August 1902, Haldane was admitted to the
After the
Haldane wrote, "One longs for Rosebery had he been coming in to his right place at the head of affairs, we could have gone anywhere with confidence. But it seems now as if this were not to be and we have to do the only thing we can do, which is to resolutely follow a plan of concerted action".[19]
On 13 December 1905, Haldane was appointed Secretary of State for War, but he may have been offered the jobs of Attorney-General and Home Secretary.[4] (Grey became Foreign Secretary).[20] Unity in the Liberals helped them obtain the largest electoral majority in the party's history in the 1906 general election.[21]
Secretary of State for War
As early as January 1906 Haldane was persuaded by fellow Liberal Imperialist Edward Grey to begin planning for a Continental war in support of the French against the Germans.[22][b] However, Haldane's first estimates reduced the Army by 16,600 men and reduced expenditure by £2.6m to £28 million, as the Liberals had been elected on a platform of retrenchment.[23] By 1914 Britain spent 3.4% of national income on defence, little more in absolute terms than Austria-Hungary's 6.1%. Army expenditure was determined according to a formula devised by the Esher Committee. In 1900, during the Boer War, army expenditure was £86.8m, by 1910 (a low point, after four years of cuts under the Liberals) it had dropped to £27.6m and by 1914 it had risen back to £29.4m. In March 1914 effective expenditure on the Army, after allowing for increased pensions and £1m set aside for military aviation, was still less than in 1907–8, and £2m less than in 1905-6 (despite a 20% rise in prices since then).[23]
In October 1907 Haldane was intimately involved with the negotiations at Windsor with Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Germanophile and linguist was thrilled to be summoned at 1 am to talk with the Emperor over whisky on arms reduction principles. But the import was the Berlin–Baghdad railway which Germany was hoping to construct with British approval. A fluent German-speaker, Haldane was lulled into a false sense of security believing 'like a bear with a sore head' that he had won a great deal.[24][25] Another such conference took place at Balmoral in September 1909. But the Kaiser, refusing to converse with a mere secretary, arrogantly insisted that only the King was of equal rank.[26]
Despite the budgetary constraints, Haldane implemented a wide-ranging set of reforms of the Army, aimed at preparing the army for an Imperial war but with the more likely (and secret) task of a European war. The main element of this was the establishment of the British Expeditionary Force of six infantry divisions and one cavalry division.[27] The Official Historian Brigadier James Edmonds later wrote that "in every respect the Expeditionary Force of 1914 was incomparably the best trained, best organised and best equipped British Army ever to leave these shores"[28]
Army reforms
Haldane set up the
In all the reforms, Haldane worked closely at the War Office with
Usually critical, Rosebery remarked on Haldane's interest in philosophy, declaring: "I have read his Secret Memorandum, and that was enough". In 1907 and 1908, Haldane passed far-reaching reforms to Army management. He was accredited as an efficient bureaucratic leader, notably founding the
Haldane was also instrumental in the creation the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1909, which provided the fledgling aircraft industry in the United Kingdom with a sound body of science on which to base the development of aircraft for the next seventy years (it was disbanded in 1979).[citation needed]
Philosopher-politician
Throughout his long career and association with the modernisers or 'Limps' Haldane used his considerable intellect to great advantage against economy.
Two elections ensued, one in January and another in December 1910, before in 1911 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Haldane, of Cloan in the
Haldane Mission of 1912 to Berlin
1912 saw the unsuccessful attempt of the Haldane Mission, an effort to quell the friction between Britain and Germany arising because of their escalating naval arms race.[37] The mission was a failure because the Germans would agree to slow the tempo of its warship construction only if Britain promised to remain neutral if Germany should become engaged in a war where "Germany could not be said to be the aggressor." Above all Berlin wanted Britain to remain neutral in a war between Germany and France. That carried an unacceptable risk encouraging Germany to go to war with France or Russia and taking control of the continent.[38][39][40]
First World War
In March 1914 Haldane's successor at the War Office,
Following the outbreak of the First World War Haldane was falsely accused of pro-German sympathies, in July 1914, for hosting
In 1915 Asquith ranked his Cabinet, putting Haldane only sixth of the inner cabinet members.[42] He also inveigled Kitchener and Haldane to sign the King's Pledge, a vow to abstain from alcohol for the duration of the war, which Haldane resented and which Churchill and Asquith himself completely ignored.[citation needed]
Dismissal from office
Following the
To the detriment of their relationship, Asquith gave no personal expression to Haldane.[48] Jenkins describes the omission as "the most uncharacteristic fault of Asquith's whole career" attributing it to Asquith suffering the "indescribable blow" of the surprise announcement of the engagement of the woman he loved, Venetia Stanley, to one of his government ministers, Edwin Montagu.[49][50]
Following his departure from the government Haldane went to the front to meet his old friend General Haig, and his cousin, General Aylmer Haldane, but he was exhausted on being ejected from Cabinet.[51] Having been awarded the Order of Merit in 1915, in the personal gift of George V, he wrote a Memorandum of Events, 1906–15, to defend his reputation. It was published in April 1916. Haldane thought Lloyd George's new government, formed in December 1916, "very low class". Haldane told Lord Buckmaster at this time, "Asquith is a first-class head of a deliberative council. He is versed in precedents, acts on principle, and knows how and when to compromise. Lloyd George knows nothing for precedents and cares for no principles, but he has fire in his belly and that is what we want."[52]
As the war progressed Haldane moved increasingly close to the Labour Party, but he was held back by his ties to the Liberal Party and to Asquith. When the Irish War of Independence broke out in 1919, Haldane was one of the first British politicians to argue that the solution lay in compromise rather than force.[citation needed]
Contribution to Canadian constitutional law
As Lord Chancellor, Haldane was a member of the
Haldane's approach to the division of powers was heavily criticised by some academics and lawyers in Canada, such as F. R. Scott[55] and Chief Justice Bora Laskin, as unduly favouring the provinces over the federal government and depriving it of the powers needed to deal with modern economic issues. More recently, one major study has characterised him as "the wicked stepfather" of the Canadian Constitution.[56]
Influence on education
In 1895, Haldane helped the Webbs found the
Haldane was a member of the
In 1904, he was President of the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club and gave the Toast to Sir Walter at the Club's annual dinner, addressing "The dedicated life" to a group of students on 10 January 1907. He also served as second Chancellor of the University of Bristol where he made an important address titled "The Civic University" outlining his educational philosophy in 1911. At the end of his life Lord Haldane was elected Chancellor of the University of St Andrews in June 1928. Perhaps his greatest speech on education was made in House of Lords on 12 July 1916, at the height of the terrible slaughter on the Western Front.[61]
Writings
Haldane co-translated the first English edition of Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation, published between 1883 and 1886. He wrote several philosophical works, the best known of which is The Reign of Relativity (1921), which dealt with the philosophical implications of the theory of relativity. Haldane published "The Pathway to Reality",[1] based on the Gifford Lectures which he had delivered at the University of St Andrews.[62] Some of his public addresses have also been published, including The future of democracy (1918).[63]
- The Pathway to Reality. London: John Murray. 1903.
- The Pathway to Reality: Stage the Second. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. 1904.
- Army Reform and Other Addresses (1907)
- The Conduct of Life, and Other Addresses. London. 1914.
- Before the War. 1920.
- The Reign of Relativity. Toronto: Macmillan. 1921.
- The philosophy of humanism and of other subjects. Toronto: Macmillan. 1922.
- Human Experience: A Study of Its Structure. E.P. Dutton. 1926.
- Papers and photographs of Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st viscount Haldane, and of the Haldane family., National Library of Scotland
- An Autobiography. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1929. OL 19765733W.
Personal life
Haldane had health problems all his life. He suffered from bad rheumatism, a stigmata in the eye and in 1909, he had to take bed rest when going blind from iritis. A lifelong walker and cigar smoker, he was diagnosed diabetic. "The latter is a large, fat man" was Haig's initial impression of a dignified but portly demeanour. Yet, added Haig, "One seems to like the man at once." Having worked on the Army Regulations of 1909, Haig applauded "a most clear headed and practical man––very ready to listen and weigh carefully all that is said to him." Osbert Sitwell described him as "entering a room with the air of a whole procession". Leo Amery said he looked like "the old-fashioned family butler".[4] Another Imperialist, Winston Churchill also respected Haldane, although they were from differing social backgrounds. On promoting Churchill to First Lord of the Admiralty, Asquith advised him to seek Haldane's advice at a meeting held at Archerfield, North Berwick.[d] From 1907 to 1908, he was president of the Aristotelian Society.
Haldane remained a lifelong bachelor after his fiancée, Miss Valentine Ferguson, broke off their engagement. He died suddenly of heart disease at his home in Auchterarder, Scotland, on 19 August 1928, aged 72.[64][e] The viscountcy became extinct on his death.
Later years
In December 1918, Lloyd George appointed Haldane chairman of 'The Machinery of Government' committee.[65] However, the Armistice had taken all impetus out of the reform agenda.
At the time of the
Being a fluent German speaker, ascetic philosopher and atheist, he played host to Albert Einstein, when he visited London in 1921. As President of the Institute of Public Administration, he was a leading intellectual on the philosophy of governance. "The Reign of Relativity" combined Haldane's love of all things German expressed by Goethe and his works, with the Hegelian military-industrial complex.[67] Haldane admired the fact that Germans were "trained to obey".[22] Hegel's aristocratic desire for law and order and defence of property against revolution had a mathematical symmetry. Hegel was a purist: his work attempted to keep science and philosophy apart The rising tide of New Liberalism and moral realism was for Haldane, Hegel's philological precept to improve behaviour, using the empiricism of scientific data as a proof.[68][69]
Haldane refused to join the platform for Asquith's speech at
Haldane was responsible for drafting the London University Act 1926, purchasing properties in Euston. He made some famous speeches at Toynbee Hall for the Annual American Seminar.
Arms
|
Legacy
In November 1923 Lord Birkenhead, the Conservative politician, praised Haldane's contribution to Britain's preparedness for the First World War:
In the welter of sentimentality, amid which Great Britain might easily have mouldered into ruin, my valued colleague, Lord Haldane, presented a figure alike interesting, individual, and arresting. In speech fluent and even infinite he yielded to no living idealist in the easy coinage of sentimental phraseology. Here, indeed, he was a match for those who distributed the chloroform of Berlin. Do we not remember, for instance, that Germany was his spiritual home? But he none the less prepared himself, and the Empire, to talk when the time came with his spiritual friends in language not in the least spiritual. He devised the Territorial Army, which was capable of becoming the easy nucleus of national conscription, and which unquestionably ought to have been used for that purpose at the outbreak of war. He created the Imperial General Staff. He founded the Officers' Training Corps.
— Lord Birkenhead (n.d.), Idealism in International Politics. A Rectorial Address, Delivered on November 23rd (PDF), Peterborough: The Peterborough Press, p. 9
On Haldane's death The Times described him as "one of the most powerful, subtle and encyclopaedic intellects ever devoted to the public service of his country".[4]
The military historian Correlli Barnett claimed that Haldane had "all-round personal talents far exceeding those of his predecessors" as Secretary of State for War and that he was "a man of first-class intellect and wide education".[73] Walter Reid believed Haldane to be the greatest of the Secretaries for War.
Decided cases
- Hedley Byrne
- British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co v Underground Electric Railway Co of London [1912] AC 673, 689, on mitigation
- Kreglinger v New Patagonia Meat & Cold Storage Co Ltd[1913] UKHL 1, no clog on equity of redemption
- Sinclair v Brougham [1914] AC 398, priority for depositors over shareholders
- Nocton v Lord Ashburton [1914] AC 932, fiduciary duty of giving non-negligent advice
- Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Selfridge & Co Ltd [1915] UKHL 1, no right to enforce resale price maintenance without a contract
- Lennard's Carrying Co Ltd v Asiatic Petroleum Co Ltd [1915] AC 705, directors are presumed to be the controlling minds of the company
- Cook v Deeks [1916] UKPC 10, no conflicts of interest for company directors
- Jones v Jones [1916] 2 AC 487
- Great West Saddlery Company Limited and others v The King [1921] UKPC 27
- Macedo v Stroud [1922] AC 330, property transfer
- Jasperson v Dominion Tobacco Co [1923] AC 709, interference with contractual relations
- Lake v Simmons [1927] AC 487
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ Diary of Beatrice Webb, 20 January 1895,[10] cited in [11]
- ^ He invited Colonel Huguet, the French Military Attache to Plan at War Office from Jan 1906.
- ^ In 1912 Haldane visited the Canadian Bar in Montreal, Quebec Province, described in Haldane 1914
- ^ Haldane was impressed by the younger man's public speech at Bradford on 15 July 1898 during his early radicalism.
- ^ Lord Haldane, veteran statesman and philosopher, who will be remembered as one of the greatest of British War Ministers and who was twice Lord Chancellor of England, died suddenly today of heart disease at his home in Auchterarder, Scotland.[64]
Citations
- ^ a b c d (Hesilrige 1921, p. 432)
- ^ a b c d e f g (Matthew 2011)
- ^ "No. 26018". The London Gazette. 28 January 1890. p. 475.
- ^ a b c d e f (Reid 2006, p. 132)
- ^ "The House of Commons Constituencies Beginning with "H"". www.leighrayment.com. 12 March 2016. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Webb 1948, p. 98.
- ^ Webb 1986, p. 345.
- ^ "Letter from Haldane to Rosebery", Rosebery Collection, National Library Scotland, 6 June 1894
- ^ McKinstry 2005, p. 335.
- ^ "Papers of Beatrice and Sidney Webb, including Beatrice Webb's diaries and correspondence". Archives Hub. LSE Library Archives and Special Collections. n.d. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ McKinstry 2005, pp. 338–339.
- ^ Haldane Papers, Note to his letters.
- ^ Haldane Papers, Mss NLS 5951.
- ^ "No. 27464". The London Gazette. 12 August 1902. p. 5174.
- ^ "The Coronation Honours". The Times. No. 368044. London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
- ^ Ridley 2012.
- ^ Ridley 2012, pp. 397–398.
- ^ McKinstry 2005, pp. 467–468.
- ^ Haldane Papers, Letter from Lord Haldane to Sir Francis Knollys, Private Secretary to Edward VII on 12 September 1905.
- ^ "No. 27862". The London Gazette. 8 December 1905. p. 8893.
- ^ McKinstry 2005, p. 476.
- ^ a b (Haldane 1920)
- ^ a b (Reid 2006, pp. 136–137)
- ^ Sommer 1960.
- ^ Ridley 2012, pp. 414–415.
- ^ Haldane 1929.
- ^ a b Reid 2006, p. 134.
- ^ Reid 2006, p. 140.
- ^ Reid 2006, p. 138.
- ^ Bond 1963, pp. 33–43.
- ^ Hobhouse 1977, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Tanner 2003, p. 45.
- ^ Pugh 2014, p. 46.
- ^ "No. 28480". The London Gazette. 28 March 1911. p. 2522.
- ^ Heuston 1987, pp. 166-.
- ^ Haldane 1929, p. 253.
- ^ Scott 1918, pp. 589–596.
- ^ Maurer 1992, pp. 284–308.
- ^ Langhorne 1971, pp. 359–370.
- ^ Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the coming of the Great War (Random House, 1991) excerpt see Dreadnought (book), popular history; pp 790–817.
- ^ a b (Maurice 1937, p. 355)
- ^ Hobhouse 1977.
- ^ Adams 1999, p. 188.
- ^ Jenkins 1964, p. 360.
- ^ a b c (Egremont 1980, p. 269)
- ^ Jenkins 1964, pp. 361–362.
- ^ Jenkins 1964, p. 362.
- ^ Sommer 1960, pp. 324–328.
- ^ Jenkins 1964, pp. 362–366.
- ^ Adams 1999, p. 186.
- ^ Jenkins 2001, p. 268.
- ^ Koss 1985, p. 226.
- ^ In re the Board of Commerce Act, 1919, and the Combines and Fair Prices Act, 1919 [1922] 1 A.C. 191
- ^ Toronto Electric Commissioners v. Snider, [1925] AC 396.
- ^ F. R. Scott, Some Privy Counsel (1950), 28 Can. Bar. Rev. 780.
- ^ a b (Vaughan 2010)
- ^ Contemporary Review, (London 1892),
- ^ Matthew 1973, p. 145: from a letter of 6 October 1902
- ^ "Community Report From The History Group" (PDF). Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ Ashley 1904, Preface.
- ^ Ashby & Anderson 1970, p. 135.
- ^ Reid 2006, p. 136.
- ^ "Books by Richard Burton Haldane". goodreads.com. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ New York Times. 20 August 1928. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
- ^ The Machinery of Government Committee (1918). Report of the Machinery of Government Committee (PDF) (Report). Ministry of Reconstruction. p. 2. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
- ^ Koss 1985, p. 246-247.
- ^ Haldane 1929, pp. 183-185., A Hegelian Army.
- ^ Haldane 1922.
- ^ Haldane 1926.
- ^ Koss 1985, p. 253-255.
- ^ "No. 32901". The London Gazette. 25 January 1924. p. 769.
- ^ "The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club".
- ^ Barnett 1970, pp. 362, 388.
Sources
- OL 6855954M.
- ISBN 9780674772908.
- Ashley, Percy (1904). Modern Tariff History: Germany - United States - France. London: John Murray.
- Barnett, Correlli (1970). Britain and Her Army: A Military, Political and Social Survey. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0713901128.
- Bond, Brian (1963). "Richard Burdon Haldane at the War Office, 1905-1912". Army Quarterly and Defence Journal. 86: 33–43.
- ISBN 0753801469.
- ISBN 978-0-19-821312-3.
- Higgens, Simon Giles. "How was Richard Haldane able to reform the British Army? An historical assessment using a contemporary change management model" (Diss. University of Birmingham, 2011). online
- ISBN 9780719533877.
- OCLC 243906913.
- Jenkins, Roy (2001). Churchill. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0330488058.
- Johnson, Matthew. "Alternatives to Conscription: Richard Burdon Haldane and a ‘Liberal’ Nation-in-Arms," in Militarism and the British Left, 1902–1914 (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2013) pp. 133–155.
- ISBN 978-0-231-06155-1.
- Langhorne, Richard (1971). "VII. The Naval Question in Anglo-German Relations, 1912–1914". The Historical Journal. 14 (2): 359–370. S2CID 159469947.
- Matthew, H.C.G. (1973). Liberal Imperialists: The Ideas and Politics of a Post-Gladstonian elite. Oxford. ISBN 0198218427.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Matthew, H. C. G. (6 January 2011). "Haldane, Richard Burdon, Viscount Haldane (1856–1928)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33643. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Maurer, John H. (1992). "The Anglo-German Naval Rivalry and Informal Arms Control, 1912-1914". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 36 (2): 284–308. S2CID 154834335.
- Maurice, Frederick (1937). Haldane: The Life of Viscount Haldane of Cloan. Vol. 1: 1856 to 1915. London: Fabe and Faber.
- McKinstry, Leo (2005). Rosebery: Statesman in Turmoil. John Murray. OCLC 1004013256.
- ISBN 978-1-317-86942-9.
- Reid, Walter (2006). Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd. ISBN 1-84158-517-3.
- Ridley, Jane (2012). Bertie: a life of Edward VII. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0099575443.
- Scott, James Brown (1918). "Lord Haldane's Diary of Negotiations Between Germany and England in 1912". The American Journal of International Law. 12 (3): 589–596. S2CID 246010587.
- Sommer, Dudley (1960). Haldane of Cloan: his life and times. London: G. Allen & Unwin. OCLC 75294052.
- Spiers, Edward M. Haldane: An Army Reformer (1980), 240pp.
- Tanner, Duncan (2003). Political Change and the Labour Party 1900-1918. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53053-8.
- Vaughan, Frederick (2010). Viscount Haldane: "the Wicked Step-father of the Canadian Constitution". University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-4237-9– via Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.
- ISBN 978-0-521-20852-9.
- ISBN 978-0-86068-845-7.
- Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921). Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. 160A, )
Further reading
- Campbell, John. Haldane: The Forgotten Statesman Who Shaped Britain and Canada (2020) online review
- Cooper, Duff (1963). Old Men Even Die.
- Gollin, Alfred. "The Mystery of Lord Haldane and Early British Military Aviation." Albion 11.1 (1979): 46-65.
- Lyman, Richard W. (1957). The First Labour Government. London: Chapman & Hall. ISBN 9780846217848.
- Magnus, Philip (1964). King Edward VII. London: John Murray. ISBN 0719503450.
- Maurice, Frederick (1939). Haldane: The Life of Viscount Haldane of Cloan. Vol. 2 1915-1928. London: Fabe and Faber.
- Morris, A.J. Anthony. "Haldane's army reforms 1906–8: The deception of the radicals." History 56.186 (1971): 17-34. online
- Pringle-Pattison, A.Seth. "Richard Burdon Haldane (Viscount Haldane of Cloan) 1856–1928". Proceedings of the British Academy. XIV: 405–441.
- Schneiderman, David. "Harold Laski, Viscount Haldane, and the law of the Canadian constitution in the early twentieth century." University of Toronto Law Journal 48 (1998): 521+.
- Schneiderman, David. "Haldane Unrevealed." McGill Law Journal/Revue de droit de McGill 57.3 (2012): 597–626. online
- Wexler, Stephen. "The Urge to Idealize: Viscount Haldane and the Constitution of Canada." McGill Law Journal 29 (1983): 608+. online
External links
- Portraits of Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Works by Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane at Internet Archive
- Works by Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Buckle, George Earle (1922). . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.).
- Archival Material at Leeds University Library
- Newspaper clippings about Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW