Probably the most outstanding factor concerning the former Conservative Scottish Workplace minister James Douglas-Hamilton, who has died aged 81, is that he carried out a profitable profession, over a interval of greater than half a century and in 4 totally different political assemblies, with out ever apparently shedding a good friend or making an enemy out of his opponents. His skill to traverse the standard boundaries in politics was the extra uncommon since “Lord James”, as he was universally recognized, was a scion of the premier dukedom of Scotland and operated within the area of Scottish politics – one which isn’t usually famous for any deference to the the Aristocracy.
Douglas-Hamilton was an Edinburgh city councillor earlier than being elected MP for Edinburgh West in October 1974, a seat he held for 23 years till the 1997 election worn out each Conservative MP in Scotland. He was then made a life peer as Lord Selkirk of Douglas, and was an energetic member of the Lords till his retirement in July this 12 months, an occasion which was unusually marked by appreciative applause from throughout the Home for his years of service.
From 1999 till 2007 he was the MSP for the Lothians, serving because the Conservatives’ chief whip and enterprise supervisor for 2 years after which because the get together spokesman on, successively, training and housing.
He had the outdated world manners of an aristocrat. When he turned a minister and was assigned a feminine driver from the federal government automobile pool, he repeatedly brought on confusion by springing from his seat to open her automobile door after they arrived wherever. On one event, when approached by a mugger on the road after a late night time on the Commons, he reportedly warned his assailant: “I’m afraid I’m going to must knock you out”, earlier than doing so. His slight construct, as befitted a flyweight former Oxford boxing blue, had clearly led his attacker to imagine that he was a simple goal.
Those that mistook this air of diffidence and self-effacing civility of their political dealings with Douglas-Hamilton would equally be taught to rue their error. He had studied historical past at Balliol School, Oxford and had an extra diploma in Scots regulation from Edinburgh College. He was not a political ideologue however had his personal agency convictions and beliefs and an unshakeable dedication to the concept of public service and its sensible utility. The Edinburgh West reduction street is one such testomony to the realm’s former MP.
He was born in Dungavel Home, Strathaven, Lanarkshire, the second of the 5 sons of Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the 14th duke of Hamilton, and the previous Girl Elizabeth Percy, daughter of the eighth duke of Northumberland. His father was a a lot adorned pioneering aviator, who served within the RAF and made the primary flight over Mount Everest in 1933.
In Might 1941, simply over a 12 months earlier than James’s beginning, Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, had made his famed secret crash touchdown in Scotland – having failed to seek out the airstrip at Dungavel Home – and requested for the 14th duke, claiming that he was on a peace mission to finish the second world warfare.
The episode and its aftermath would later fascinate Douglas-Hamilton, who printed two books on the topic (Motive for a Mission, 1971, and The Fact about Rudolf Hess, 1993) and who campaigned unsuccessfully for Hess’s launch from Spandau jail in Berlin.
Douglas-Hamilton was a web page to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mom on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and was educated at Eton. He practised as an advocate on the Scottish bar from 1968 to 1974, and served on Edinburgh metropolis council from 1972 till 1974. Within the basic election of February 1974 he got here third when he fought the then secure Labour seat of Hamilton, and he was subsequently elected for Edinburgh West in October 1974.
He was socially liberal and his maiden speech within the Home of Commons was in opposition to the strikes for a reintroduction of capital punishment for terrorist crime. Douglas-Hamilton was appointed an opposition whip in 1976 and, after Margaret Thatcher took workplace, turned a senior authorities whip.
He spent 4 years (1983-87) as parliamentary personal secretary to Malcolm Rifkind, first on the International Workplace after which on the Scottish Workplace, when Rifkind turned Scottish secretary, earlier than himself being appointed a junior minister within the division. He was accountable for dwelling affairs and the setting from 1987 till 1992, after which for training and housing till 1995. He was promoted to minister of state with duty for dwelling affairs and well being in 1995 and held that publish till shedding his seat within the 1997 election, when he was made a life peer.
Douglas-Hamilton had briefly confronted a profession disaster in 1994 when the dying of an uncle, the tenth Earl of Selkirk, led to his inheriting the title and thus a seat within the Home of Lords, which might have prevented him persevering with to serve within the Commons. To keep away from inflicting a political headache for John Main’s struggling authorities, Douglas-Hamilton instantly disclaimed the title in an effort to stay an MP, keep away from a byelection and protect the federal government’s dwindling majority.
His ministerial promotion the next 12 months was a reward for this sacrifice and he was additionally made a member of the privy council and a QC in 1996. His inheritance of the earldom was challenged by a relative, however determined in his favour in 1996, which permits his eldest son to inherit.
Douglas-Hamilton was concerned in a lot of charitable and voluntary our bodies in Scotland. He was lord excessive commissioner, the monarch’s consultant to the Common Meeting of the Church of Scotland, in 2012-13. He additionally wrote a e book of memoirs, After You, Prime Minister (2009).
In 1974, he married Susie Buchan, the daughter of the 2nd Lord Tweedsmuir and granddaughter of the novelist John Buchan. She survives him, with their 4 sons, John, Charles and twins Harry and Jamie.
