James Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn

James Gray Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn, (9 February 1897 – 20 February 1971) was a British Unionist politician. He was joint-Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury in Winston Churchill's war-time coalition government and later served as Secretary of State for Scotland under Churchill and then Sir Anthony Eden from 1951 to 1957. In 1959 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stuart of Findhorn.

Early life Born in Edinburgh, Stuart was the third and youngest son of Morton Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray, and Edith Douglas Palmer, daughter of Rear-Admiral George Palmer. He was educated at Eton College and was set to attend the University of Cambridge, but the plans were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. (his probation completed in Jan 1915 ) and served in the war, reaching the rank of Captain. He was awarded the Military Cross and Bar in 1917.

He was appointed Equerry to HRH Prince Albert in June 1920, and was appointed a Member (4th Class) of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1922 New Year Honours, with the award dated 3 December 1921.

Political career Stuart sat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Moray and Nairn from 1923 to 1959. He served as a Lord of the Treasury from 1935 to 1941 under successively Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill and was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1939 Birthday Honours. In 1941 Churchill promoted him to joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Government Chief Whip), which he remained until 1945. He continued as Conservative Chief Whip until 1948. In 1950 he became Chairman of the Scottish Unionist Party, a post he held until 1962.

Personal life

In 1923 Stuart married Lady Rachel Cavendish, daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Evelyn Petty-Fitzmaurice (a daughter of the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne). Through his marriage, he became a brother-in-law of Lady Dorothy Cavendish, who was the wife of Harold Macmillan, the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Together, they had three children:

Stuart died at Salisbury Infirmary on 20 February 1971, aged 74, and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his elder son. His widow died in October 1977.