James Gardiner (1860 – 31 December 1924) was a Scottish

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

and Liberal Party politician.

Family and education

Gardiner was born near Crieff in

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

in 1860, the son of John Gardiner, a crofter, and his wife Harriet (née Allan). He was educated at Morrison's Academy in Crieff and also received private tuition.Who was Who, OUP 2007 In 1887 he married Elizabeth Maude Christie the daughter of an engineer from Ruthvenvale, near

Auchterarder Auchterarder (; gd, Uachdar Àrdair, meaning Upper Highland) is a small town located north of the Ochil Hills in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, and home to the Gleneagles Hotel. The High Street of Auchterarder gave the town its popular name of "Th ...

. Elizabeth Gardiner died of heart failure in a London nursing home in 1921 and in 1922 Gardiner married Elizabeth Christie whose father had homes in

Mokameh Mokama is a town and a municipal council in barh of Patna district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is located east of Patna on the southern banks of the river Ganges. Mokama is the connecting town of north and south Bihar and has 2nd highest ...

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

and at

Comrie Comrie may refer to: Places *Comrie (crater), a lunar crater *Comrie, Fife, a village in Fife, Scotland *Comrie, Perth and Kinross, a village and parish in Strathearn, Scotland People with the surname *Aaron Comrie (born 1997), Scottish footballer ...

Career

Gardiner followed his father into

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. He built up a seed

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

and

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

merchant's business in Perth. He became a

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

and developed one of the largest potato farms in Scotland, occupying an extensive portion of land on the Drummond Castle estate of the

Earl of Ancaster Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

. had a distinguished career in Scottish agriculture. He was sometime Director of the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture and President of Scottish National Farmers’ Union. During the Great War he served as a Member of the

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

, Potato Advisory Committee.The Times, 1 January 1925 p14 He was also a Member of the Council of the National Institute of Agricultural

Botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. He was an acknowledged expert in practical agriculture in all its advanced branches and was an authority on agricultural

plant breeding Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to produce cro ...

, raising several of the most popular immune varieties of potatoes in cultivation. He later passed from specialising in potatoes to general farming and stock - breeding.

Politics

Gardiner first stood for

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

at the 1918 general election as Liberal candidate for Kinross and Western Perthshire. Kinross and Western Perthshire was a new seat created for the 1918 election. Gardiner's opponent was the Unionist Archibald Stirling who had represented one of the previous seats covering part of the same area, West Perthshire since winning a by-election there in February 1917. Despite Gardiner's support for

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

, it was Stirling who was awarded the Coalition coupon. However it was Gardiner who won the election, one of the few Liberals to be elected against the coupon, and he then loyally supported the Lloyd George coalition in Parliament.Trevor Wilson, ''The Downfall of the Liberal Party, 1914-1935''; Cornell University Press, 1966 p146 Gardiner defeated Stirling in a straight fight by a majority of 604 votes.F W S Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results, 1918-1945''; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow, 1949 p642 At the 1922 general election Gardiner stood as a supporter of Lloyd George under the description National Liberal and, despite the narrowness of his victory in 1918, he was returned unopposed. He stood down at the next election.

Death

Gardiner died at his home, Dargill Farm, Crieff on 31 December 1924 aged 64 years.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, James 1860 births 1924 deaths People educated at Morrison's Academy Scottish farmers UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 Scottish Liberal Party MPs Politics of Perth and Kinross National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) politicians