Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery

Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, 2nd Earl of Midlothian, (8 January 1882 – 31 May 1974), styled Lord Dalmeny until 1929, was a British Liberal politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945. He was the Member of Parliament for Midlothian from 1906 to 1910. He became the Earl of Rosebery and Midlothian in 1929 and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death.

Early life He was born at Dalmeny House west of Edinburgh on 8 January 1882. His parents were Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (from 1894 to 1895) and Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery, a member of the Rothschild family. He was the brother of Neil Primrose and the writer Lady Sybil Grant.

He was educated at Eton then undertook military training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

During the First World War, he served in France from 1914 to 1917 as Camp Commandant and ADC to General Allenby and subsequently in Palestine as Allenby's Military Secretary.

Cricket and horse racing

As Lord Dalmeny he was a prominent cricketer. He played two first-class matches for Middlesex in 1902. He served as captain of Surrey from 1905 to 1907. He played in 102 first-class matches in all, scoring 3551 runs at an average of 22.47, including two centuries. His highest score was 138 against Leicestershire in 1905, when he added 260 for the sixth wicket in 130 minutes with J. N. Crawford. He was a hitter of notable power and though never consistent he could on occasions "knock the best bowling all over the field", as when he hit 58 against Nottinghamshire on a difficult wicket at The Oval in 1905. Against Essex in 1906 he scored 52 in 37 minutes in the first innings and 58 not out in 45 minutes in the second. In 1907, he resigned the Surrey captaincy because of conflicts with his parliamentary duties. His most successful horse was Blue Peter, which in 1939 won the Two Thousand Guineas, the Blue Riband, the Eclipse Stakes and the Epsom Derby. Another of his horses, Ocean Swell, sired by Blue Peter, won the 1944 Derby and the 1945 Ascot Gold Cup. Rosebery was elected to the Jockey Club in 1924, and later became president of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association. He donated the prize money from his 1944 Derby and 1945 Ascot Gold Cup wins as seed money to help launch the Edinburgh International Festival.

Political career

At the age of 21, at the insistence of his father, he reluctantly resigned his commission to stand as Liberal candidate for Midlothian (which was also known as Edinburghshire), where the Roseberys had long been prominent landowners. He was elected in the Liberal landslide in the 1906 election, one of almost 400 Liberals to be returned, and, at the age of 24, the youngest serving MP. He chose not to stand in the 1910 election, stating in a letter to his agent that his "politics are not far enough advanced to meet the views of the Liberal Party as at present constituted."

Rosebery entered the House of Lords on the death of his father in 1929, taking his seat as the second Earl of Midlothian, a title bestowed on his father in 1911 but never used. He continued to be known as the Sixth Earl of Rosebery. a post he held until 1964.

In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan, Sir Thomas Henry Holland, James Pickering Kendall and James Watt. Reputedly, his last words prior to his departing from the Scottish Office were "Well. I didn't make a bad job of this, did I? Didn't have the time".

Later life He was created a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT) in 1947 by King George VI. Rosebery was President of the National Liberal Party 1945–1957. From 1951 to 1974 he was the president of the influential Scottish conservation organisation the Cockburn Association. He was appointed Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland in 1952. He also served as president of the Royal Scottish Corporation. He was a member of the royal commission on justices of the peace (1946–8) and was himself a JP for many years.

Lord Rosebery died at Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire on 30 May 1974 and was succeeded in his titles by his younger son, Neil.