Robert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan

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Thomas James Macnamara
Member of Parliament
for Glasgow Hillhead
In office
14 December 1918 – 9 June 1937
Preceded byConstituency created
Succeeded byJames Reid
Personal details
Born
Robert Stevenson Horne

(1871-02-28)28 February 1871
Slamannan, Stirlingshire
Died3 September 1940(1940-09-03) (aged 69)
Political partyUnionist
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
ProfessionAdvocate

Robert Stevenson Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan,

PC, KC (28 February 1871 – 3 September 1940) was a Scottish businessman, advocate and Unionist politician. He served under David Lloyd George as Minister of Labour between 1919 and 1920, as President of the Board of Trade between 1920 and 1921 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer
between 1921 and 1922. In 1937 he was ennobled as Viscount Horne of Slamannan.

Background and education

Horne was born at Slamannan, Stirlingshire, the son of Reverend Robert Stevenson Horne, the village's Church of Scotland minister, and Mary, daughter of Thomas Lockhead. He was educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow, where he studied Law[citation needed] and was President of the Students' Representative Council.[citation needed]

Career until 1918

Horne then spent a year teaching

Suez Canal Company, chairman of the Great Western Railway Company and director of several other companies and banks.[1]

During the

Admiralty as Assistant Inspector-General of Transportation, becoming Director of Materials and Priority in 1918, and Director of Labour and Third Civil Lord later the same year.[2]

Political career

Having unsuccessfully stood for Stirlingshire in both general elections of 1910,[citation needed] Horne was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Hillhead in 1918.[3] He served under David Lloyd George as Minister of Labour between 1919 and 1920, as President of the Board of Trade between 1920 and 1921 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1921 and 1922.[citation needed] It was in that capacity that he was involved in the negotiations leading to the signing of the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement. Leonid Krasin pressurised Horne to support the treaty by threatening to cancel orders with textile mills in Yorkshire, as only the mills with Soviet orders were working full-time.[4] When the treaty was signed, it was the first recognition by Britain of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.[citation needed]

When the

Privy Council.[5] He was ennobled as Viscount Horne of Slamannan, of Slamannan in the County of Stirling, on 9 June 1937.[6]

Personal life

Horne, a womanising bachelor, was famously referred to by Baldwin as a "Scots

cad", a remark that has stuck.[7]
He died in September 1940, aged 69. The viscountcy became extinct with his death.

References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for Glasgow Hillhead
19181937
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
George Henry Roberts
Minister of Labour
1919–1920
Succeeded by
Thomas James Macnamara
Preceded by
Sir Auckland Geddes
President of the Board of Trade
1920–1921
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chancellor of the Exchequer
1921–1922
Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Rector of the University of Aberdeen
1921–1924
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation
Viscount Horne of Slamannan

1937–1940
Extinct