Group Captain George "Geordie" Nigel Douglas-Hamilton,
10th Earl of Selkirk KT, GCMG, GBE, AFC, AE, PC, QC (Scot.), (4 January
1906 – 24 November 1994) was a Scottish nobleman and Conservative
politician.
Born at Merly, Wimborne, Dorset, he was the second
son of the 13th Duke of Hamilton and Brandon and Nina Mary Benita,
youngest daughter of Major R. Poore, Salisbury. He was educated at Eton
College, Balliol College, Oxford, Edinburgh University (LLB) and at the
University of Bonn, Vienna University and the Sorbonne. He was admitted
to the Faculty of Advocates in 1935, taking silk in 1959.
He
played cricket for Wiltshire in the 1927 Minor Counties Championship.
He was a member of Edinburgh Town Council from 1935–40 and served as
a Commissioner of General Board of Control (Scotland) from 1936–39 and
as a Commissioner for Special Areas in Scotland from 1937-39. He
commanded 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron in the Royal Auxiliary Air
Force from 1934-38.
With the outbreak of the Second World War,
Douglas-Hamilton joined the Royal Air Force. He served as Fighter
Command's chief intelligence officer and the personal assistant to Air
Chief Marshal Dowding. Douglas-Hamilton was also involved in countering
the German task force operating near Ceylon.
Douglas-Hamilton was
twice Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Air Force Cross in 1938
and the OBE in 1941.
He succeeded to Earldom upon the death of his
father in 1940, under terms of special remainder, his elder brother
becoming the 14th Duke of Hamilton.
On 6 August 1947,
Douglas-Hamilton married Audrey Sale-Barker, an alpine skiing champion
and prominent aviator.
He was elected as a Scottish
representative peer from 1945–63, during which time he served as a Lord
in Waiting to King George VI (1951–52) and to Queen Elizabeth II
(1952–53). He held Ministerial office as Paymaster-General from November
1953-December 1955, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from
December 1955-January 1957 and as First Lord of the Admiralty from
1957-October 1959.
He was UK High Commissioner for Singapore and
Commissioner General for South-East Asia from 1959–63, and UK Council
Representative to Southeast Asia Treaty Organization from 1960-63. He
was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1955, and awarded the GCMG in 1959
and the GBE in 1963. He was appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1976.
He held the office of Deputy Keeper of Holyroodhouse between 1937 until
his death, the Duke of Hamilton being hereditary Keeper. He was made a
Freeman of Hamilton, Scotland, in 1938. He was also an Honorary Chief of
the Saulteaux Indians, 1967, and an Honorary Citizen of the City of
Winnipeg and of the town of Selkirk, Manitoba.
He died on 24
November 1994 at age 88 without issue.
|
