John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone

John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone, 1st Baron Elphinstone, (23 June 1807 – 19 July 1860) was a Scottish soldier, politician and colonial administrator. He was twice elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom as a Scottish representative peer, serving once from 14 January 1833 to 29 December 1834 and then again from 8 September 1847 to 23 April 1859. His political career also included the governorships of Madras and of Bombay.

Life The only son of John Elphinstone, 12th Lord Elphinstone in the peerage of Scotland, he was born on 23 June 1807. He succeeded his father as Lord Elphinstone in May 1813, and entered the army in 1826 as a cornet in the Royal Horse Guards. He was promoted lieutenant in 1828, and captain in 1832, and was a lord in waiting to William IV from 1835 to 1837. The king made him a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1836, in which year he was sworn of the privy council.

In 1837, he left the Guards on being appointed governor of Madras by Lord Melbourne; it was said at the time that his appointment was made in order to dissipate a rumour that the young Queen Victoria had fallen in love with him. He was governor of Madras from 1837 to 1842; he built a house at Káiti, in the Nilgiri Hills. On resigning his governorship in 1842 he travelled for some years, and explored Kashmir. .

He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1858, and on 21 May 1859, on his return to England, he was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Elphinstone of Elphinstone, Stirlingshire. He died unmarried in King Street, St. James's, London, on 19 July 1860, when his peerage of the United Kingdom became extinct.