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Robert Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford

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The Right Honourable
The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres
KT GCVO PC DL
Lindsay in 1969
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office
5 November 1972 – 4 March 1974
Prime MinisterEdward Heath
Preceded byJoseph Godber
Succeeded byDavid Ennals
Minister of State for Defence
In office
23 June 1970 – 5 November 1972
Prime MinisterEdward Heath
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byIan Gilmour
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Hereditary peerage
13 December 1975 – 11 November 1999
Preceded byThe 28th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Life peerage
24 January 1975 – 28 November 2019[a]
Member of Parliament
for Welwyn Hatfield
In office
28 February 1974 – 20 September 1974
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byHelene Hayman
Member of Parliament
for Hertford
In office
26 May 1955 – 8 February 1974
Preceded byDerek Walker-Smith
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Robert Alexander Lindsay

(1927-03-05)5 March 1927
London, England
Died18 March 2023(2023-03-18) (aged 96)
Fife, Scotland
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Ruth Meyer-Bechtler
​
​
(m. 1949; died 2021)​
Children4, including Anthony
Parent
EducationEton College
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

Robert Alexander Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford, 12th Earl of Balcarres,[b] Baron Balniel,[c] KT, GCVO, PC, DL (5 March 1927 – 18 March 2023),[1] known by courtesy as Lord Balniel between 1940 and 1975, was a Scottish hereditary peer and Conservative politician who was a member of Parliament from 1955 to 1974. He was chief of Clan Lindsay and also acted, from 1975 to 2019, as Premier Earl of Scotland.[d]

After the October 1974 general election, Lindsay was made a life peer and joined the House of Lords. Following the death of Lord Eden of Winton in 2020, Lindsay became the surviving former MP with the earliest date of first election, having first entered Parliament at the 1955 general election.[1]

Early life

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The elder son of the 28th Earl of Crawford and 11th Earl of Balcarres, he was born on 5 March 1927,[2] and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] From 1945 to 1948, he served in the Grenadier Guards. He was honorary attaché at the British Embassy in Paris from 1950 to 1951 and then worked for the Conservative Research Department.[4]

Career

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Balniel was elected for the Conservative Party in Hertford at the 1955 general election, aged 28, and served as parliamentary private secretary to Henry Brooke until 1959. From 1959 to 1965, Balniel was president of the Rural District Councils Association, and from 1963 to 1970, he was chair of the National Association for Mental Health.[4]

While the Conservative Party was in opposition, Balniel served as spokesman on Foreign Affairs from 1965 until 1967, and then joined the Shadow Cabinet as spokesman on Social Services. Following the party's victory in the 1970 general election, he served as minister of state for Defence, and then from 1972 was minister of state for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.[4]

Balniel switched to represent Welwyn and Hatfield at the February 1974 general election, narrowly winning the seat, but he was defeated in the general election in October. He was given a peerage under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as Baron Balniel, of Pitcorthie in the County of Fife, in January 1975 before succeeding as Earl of Crawford in December the same year. After the passage of House of Lords Act 1999, he sat in the Lords by virtue of his life peerage.[4] He retired from the House of Lords on 28 November 2019.[1]

Appointments

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Crawford was appointed first Crown Estate commissioner from 1980 to 1985.[5] Crawford was Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother between 1992 and her death in 2002.[6] He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 2002 Demise Honours, the special honours list published after the Queen Mother's death.[7]

Marriage and children

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Crawford married Ruth Beatrice Meyer-Bechtler (1924–2021) on 27 December 1949. They had four children:[8]

Lord Crawford died at Balcarres House on 18 March 2023, at age 96.[9] His hereditary titles passed to his eldest son, Anthony.[1]

Honours

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The Star of the Thistle

Arms

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Coat of arms of Robert Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford
Notes
[14]
Crest
A Swan's Head neck and wings Proper issuing from an antique Ducal-coronet Or
Escutcheon
Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Gules a Fess chequy Argent and Azure (Lindsay), 2nd and 3rd, Or a Lion rampant Gules debruised of a ribbon in bend Sable (Abernethy)
Supporters
Two Lions rampant guardant Gules armed and langued Azure
Motto
Endure fort (en: Suffer bravely)
Orders
Thistle Circlet

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Retired under Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014.
  2. ^ Succeeded to these titles upon the death of David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford, 11th Earl of Balcarres, in December 1975.
  3. ^ Granted a peerage under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as Baron Balniel, of Pitcorthie in the County of Fife, in January 1975.
  4. ^ The Premier Earldom in the Peerage of Scotland is that of Sutherland, created c. 1230. Held for a long time by the Leveson-Gower family, this earldom passed to Elizabeth Sutherland, 24th Countess of Sutherland (1921–2019), in 1963, who, as a woman, was at the time considered to be unsuitable for functioning as Premier Earl, so the Earls of Crawford, being next in the order of precedence, occupied the position until the earldom of Sutherland passed to a male holder (Alistair Sutherland, 25th Earl of Sutherland; born 1947) in 2019.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, Tory defence minister and last survivor of 1955 Commons intake – obituary". The Telegraph. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023 – via Yahoo News.
  2. ^ "Crawford, 29th Earl of, (Robert Alexander Lindsay) (born 5 March 1927)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u12260. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Crawford". Who's Who. Vol. 2018 (online ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ a b c d Stenton, Michael; Lees, Stephen (1981). Who's Who of British Members of Parliament. Vol. IV. Brighton: Harvester Press. p. 16.
  5. ^ "No. 48258". The London Gazette. 23 July 1980. p. 10459.
  6. ^ "Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, Tory defence minister and last survivor of 1955 Commons intake – obituary". The Telegraph. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  7. ^ "No. 56653". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 5 August 2002. p. 1.
  8. ^ "cracroftspeerage.co.uk". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk.
  9. ^ "The passing of Lord Crawford". The Clan Lindsay Society. 18 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  10. ^ "No. 54597". The London Gazette. 3 December 1996. p. 15995.
  11. ^ "No. 56653". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 August 2002. pp. 1–2.
  12. ^ Privy Council of the United Kingdom website[usurped], leighrayment.com; accessed 2 June 2016.
  13. ^ "No. 46980". The London Gazette. 3 August 1976. p. 10612.
  14. ^ "House of Lindsay". European Heraldry. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
[edit]
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Hertford
February 1974 – 1955 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament
for Welwyn and Hatfield
February 1974–October 1974 		Succeeded by
Court offices
Preceded by Lord Chamberlain
to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
1992–2002 		Death of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Earl of Crawford
1975–2023 		Succeeded by
Earl of Balcarres
1975–2023
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