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Single Person record details
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Back
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Person Code
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DS/UK/25029
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Forenames
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Archibald Henry Macdonald
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Surname
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Sinclair
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Title
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1st Viscount Thurso
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Dates
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1890-1970
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Epithet
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politician
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Activity
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The only son of Clarence Granville Sinclair (1858?1895) and his wife, Mabel Sands was born in 1890. His father, a lieutenant in the Scots Guards, was the eldest son of Sir (John George) Tollemache Sinclair, third baronet, of Ulbster, Caithness. Sinclair's mother died a few days after his birth, and five years later his father also died, leaving the young Sinclair to experience a rather itinerant childhood as he moved about between the houses of various relatives who tried to provide a home for him. Much of his time was spent with his grandfather Sir Tollemache, with his uncle, Archdeacon William Macdonald Sinclair, canon of St Paul's, or at Temple House, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the home of his uncle and aunt?Lieutenant-General and Mrs Owen Williams?where he found himself at the heart of fashionable society, for Williams was on excellent terms with Edward VII.
Educated at Eton College and at Sandhurst, Sinclair entered the army in 1910 in the 2nd Life Guards, and on the death of his grandfather in 1912 he succeeded to the baronetcy. In the days before the First World War there were few more glamorous young men in society than Archie. His good looks, charm, and romantic highland aura were spiced with a touch of daredevilry that led him to experiment with a primitive aircraft which he flew before breakfast. Asquith was captivated, and so was his daughter, Violet; but much the deepest friendship which Sinclair made at this time was with Winston Churchill. Both he and Sinclair at once discovered that they had a vast amount in common. Sinclair in his early twenties was turning towards politics and ready to trust in an older man as his guiding star; Churchill in his late thirties was already a curiously paternal figure delighted to discover a young disciple. The letters which he and Sinclair exchanged during the First World War are remarkable on both sides for their expression of private feeling, and read like those of a mutually devoted father and son.
Sinclair served on the western front throughout the war. In February 1915 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Liberal MP and former secretary for war J. E. B. Seely, commander of the Canadian cavalry brigade. In January 1916 Churchill, whose career had been ruined for the time being by Gallipoli, took charge on the western front of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers, and for four months Sinclair served as his second in command. Sinclair ended the war as a major in the Guards Machine-Gun regiment. In 1918, while still on service in France, Sinclair met and after a whirlwind courtship married, on 18 May, Marigold (1897?1975), the daughter of Angela Forbes (who had obtained a divorce from her husband, Marigold's father, Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes), who was running a military canteen in Le Touquet. It was the beginning of a long and happy marriage which produced four children: Catherine (b. 1919), Elizabeth (1921?1994), Robin, and Angus (b. 1925).
After the war Sinclair remained for a time in the role of aide to Churchill, serving as his personal military secretary at the War Office (1919?21), and as his private secretary at the Colonial Office (1921?2). But in 1922 he entered parliament as MP for Caithness and Sutherland, taking his stand as a Liberal supporting the Lloyd George (and thus Churchill) wing of the party. A convinced Scottish home-ruler, he was chiefly responsible for the Liberal ?tartan book?, the Scottish version of the party's ?green book? on agricultural reform.
During the second Labour government of 1929?31 the Liberal Party began to disintegrate, a process accelerated by the formation of Ramsay MacDonald's National Government in August 1931. One section of the party, led by Sir John Simon, favoured outright opposition to the Labour government in alliance with the Conservatives. In the economic crisis they were prepared to jettison the historic Liberal creed of free trade, and welcome the National Government as the basis of a permanent association with the tory party. The Liberal Nationals or Simonites were gradually to lose their separate identity and become Conservatives in all but name. Sinclair, who had accepted the thankless task of Liberal chief whip in November 1930, took the same line as the Samuelites, led by Sir Herbert Samuel, who were prepared to support the National Government as a temporary expedient while seeking to maintain the long-term independence of the Liberal Party. They accepted office in August 1931, Sinclair becoming secretary of state for Scotland. In October they agreed to fight a general election in alliance with the Conservatives, and when the cabinet decided in January 1932 to introduce protection it was announced that the Samuelite ministers would remain in the government under an agreement to differ. In the summer of 1932 a series of discussions took place at Sinclair's home in Caithness which led to the resignation of the Samuelite ministers in September, in protest against the conclusion of the Ottawa agreements.
Samuel, who had led the party since 1931, lost his seat in the general election, and Sinclair was prevailed upon to serve in his place as chairman of the parliamentary party. Sinclair was reluctant to accept the job. The Liberals were a deeply demoralized party. Although Sinclair could do little to revive the Liberal vote, he succeeded in turning the parliamentary party into a force more powerful than its numbers indicated. From 1935 onwards the crisis in Europe overshadowed all other political issues. The Baldwin and Chamberlain governments pursued a pragmatic policy of piecemeal concessions to Mussolini and Hitler. The Labour Party, while adopting a high moral stance of opposition to fascism and aggression, refused until late in the day to accept the need for rearmament. Under Sinclair the Liberals sought to combine support for collective security through the League of Nations with pressure for a strong air force and secure defences. In the House of Commons Sinclair and Churchill worked closely together: in condemning the Munich agreement or urging an understanding with Russia they were of one mind. They also combined to seek the establishment of a Ministry of Supply.
n the critical Commons debate of 7?8 May 1940, which led to Chamberlain's resignation, Sinclair joined in the attack, and on 10 May his old friend and ally Churchill became prime minister. Sinclair was appointed secretary of state for air, a post he retained until the dissolution of the coalition in May 1945.
Sinclair was never one of the major figures in the coalition government. With the prime minister himself directing the chiefs of staff, and the conduct of the war from day to day, the service ministers took little part in military decisions. On a more personal level Churchill continued to treat Archie as a subaltern and social companion, asserting a dominance that Sinclair never seriously contested.
Sinclair also incurred the enmity of the commander-in-chief of Fighter Command, Sir Hugh Dowding, who blamed him for failing in May 1940 to resist Churchill's demands for the dispatch of fighter squadrons to France, and later never forgave him for the manner in which he was retired from his command in November 1940. It was fortunate for Sinclair that he found a strong ally in the new chief of air staff, Sir Charles Portal. The two men quickly struck up a relationship of trust and friendship. Under Portal's tuition Sinclair was also persuaded to abandon his initial preference for precision bombing in favour of area bombing, with the aim of destroying the morale of the civilian population. In March 1942 he took a prominent part in the struggle to prevent the Admiralty diverting bombers from strategic bombing to long-range reconnaissance duties in the battle of the Atlantic, and obtained Churchill's consent for a resumption of the full bombing offensive.
Between the wars Sinclair had been able to pay regular attention to his constituency of Caithness and Sutherland He took care to visit his constituents on annual summer tours, and otherwise kept in touch through his party agent Captain Barrogill Keith, who was also the factor of his estate. The war years cut Sinclair off, and he paid for this in the general election of 1945, coming bottom of the poll in a remarkable result in which only sixty-one votes separated the three candidates. This was in effect the end of Sinclair's career. After failing to be re-elected in 1950 he accepted a peerage in the first honours list of the post-war Churchill government, and was created Viscount Thurso of Ulbster on 10 April 1952.
Sinclair was appointed CMG in 1922 and KT in 1941, and was sworn of the privy council in 1931. He died at his London home, Fotheringay House, Montpelier Row, Twickenham, on 15 June 1970, leaving his wife, two daughters, and two sons.
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Associated records
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GB1741/P89 | Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness | 1940 |
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