Sir John McEwen, 1st Baronet

Sir John Helias Finnie McEwen, 1st Baronet (21 June 1894 – 19 April 1962), also known as Jock McEwen, was a British Unionist politician who served in the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for Berwick and Haddington from the 1931 to 1945 general elections.

Early life Sir John McEwen was the son of Robert Finnie McEwen (born 1861) of Marchmont, Berwickshire, and Bardrochat, F.S.A.Scot., Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Berwickshire, by Mary Frances, daughter of R. H. D. Dundas. His sister, Katherine Isobel McEwen, married Roger Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarbrough, on 12 July 1922 at St Margaret's, Westminster, and had five children with him.

In the 1929 general election, he contested the seat of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Haddington for the Unionist Party, but failed. However, two years later he was elected to the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick and Haddington at the 1931 general election, and held the seat until the 1945 general election, when he was defeated.

McEwen served under Neville Chamberlain as Assistant Government Whip (1938–39), Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (1939 to 1940), and under Winston Churchill as a Lord of the Treasury (1942 to 1944). He was Chairman of the Conservative Members' Committee in the House of Commons (December 1944 – June 1945). Upon his death in 1962, his title passed to his eldest son, Sir James. Upon Sir James' death in 1971, his title passed to his brother and Sir John's second son, Sir Robert, as Sir James had three daughters, but no sons. The current holder of the title is his grandson, Sir John Roderick Hugh McEwen, 5th Baronet (born 1965).

Personal life

In 1923, McEwen married Brigid Mary Lindley (d. 1971), daughter of Sir Francis Oswald Lindley (1872–1950), the British diplomat, and granddaughter of botanist and illustrator John Lindley, who in 1840 was instrumental in saving The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from destruction. The raised their family at Marchmont House on the east side of the small town of Greenlaw, Scotland. Together they had seven children, including: Sir James Napier Finnie McEwen of Marchmont and Bardrochat, 2nd Bt. (1924–1971), who married Clare Rosemary Sandars (1934–2007) Sir Robert Lindley McEwen of Marchmont and Bardrochat, 3rd Bt. (1926–1980), who married Brigid Cecilia Laver, daughter of James Laver and Veronica Turleigh Christian Mary McEwen (1929–2006), who married Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh (1916–1955). Roderick McEwen (1932–1982), a folk singer who married Romana von Hofmannsthal (1935–2014), daughter of Ava Alice Muriel Astor and her second husband, Raimund von Hofmannsthal. David Fraser McEwen (1938–1976) John Sebastian McEwen (b. 1942)

He died in April 1962, aged 67, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son James.

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