John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, (26 October 1905 – 17 August 1992) was a British politician, sitting as a National Liberal and Conservative

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

before the party was fully assimilated into the Unionist Party in Scotland in the mid-1960s. Lord Muirshiel served as

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the Unit ...

from 1957 to 1962 within Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, having held a number of junior ministerial posts beforehand. In 1964, he was elevated to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Background and education

Maclay was the fifth son of

Joseph Paton Maclay, 1st Baron Maclay Joseph Paton Maclay, 1st Baron Maclay PC (6 September 1857 – 24 April 1951), known as Sir Joseph Maclay, 1st Baronet, from 1914 to 1922, was a Scottish businessman and public servant. Biography Maclay was the son of Ebenezer Maclay of Gl ...

, and the younger brother of

Joseph Maclay, 2nd Baron Maclay Joseph Paton Maclay, 2nd Baron Maclay KBE (31 May 1899 – 7 November 1969), was a Scottish banker, shipowner, peer and Liberal politician. Family and education Maclay was the eldest surviving son of Joseph Paton Maclay, 1st Baron Maclay, and h ...

.thepeerage.com John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel
/ref> He was educated at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, and was bowman in the victorious

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

boat in the 1927

Boat Race Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

. At Cambridge, he was also a member of the

University Pitt Club The University Pitt Club, popularly referred to as the Pitt Club, the UPC, or merely as Club, is a private members' club of the University of Cambridge, with a previously male-only membership but now open to both men and women. History The ...

Political career

In 1940 Maclay was elected in a wartime by-election as

(MP) for Montrose Burghs. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he led the British

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Mission to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, leading to his appointment to the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

as a Companion (CMG) in the

1944 Birthday Honours The 1944 King's Birthday Honours, celebrating the official birthday of King George VI, were announced on 2 June 1944 for the United Kingdom and British Empire, New Zealand, and South Africa. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they w ...

. In 1945 he briefly served as

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to the

Minister of Production The Minister of Production was a British government position that existed during the Second World War, heading the Ministry of Production. Initially the post was called "Minister of War Production" when it was created in February 1942, but the fir ...

. He retained his Montrose seat at the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

. During the 1945 to 1951 Labour government, he led the National Liberals in the House of Commons. The Montrose Burghs constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, and Maclay was instead returned for West Renfrewshire, a seat he held until 1964. He served under

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

as Minister of Civil Aviation and

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

between October 1951 and May 1952. In 1952 he was admitted to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. Maclay remained out of office until October 1956 when he was appointed

Minister of State for the Colonies The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and, from 1948, also to a Minister of State. Under-Secretaries of State for the Col ...

Sir Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promo ...

. When

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he ...

became Prime Minister in January 1957, he was made

with a seat in the cabinet. He continued in this post until July 1962, when he was a victim of the "

Night of the Long Knives The Night of the Long Knives (German: ), or the Röhm purge (German: ''Röhm-Putsch''), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: ''Unternehmen Kolibri''), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Ad ...

", when one-third of the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

lost their ministries. In 1964 Maclay was raised to the peerage as Viscount Muirshiel, of Kilmacolm in the County of Renfrew. He had been made a

Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. Founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire, it is sometimes ...

in 1962 and was made a

Knight of the Thistle A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in 1973. From 1967 to 1980 he served as Lord-Lieutenant of Renfrewshire.

Personal life

Lord Muirshiel married Betty, daughter of Delaval Graham L'Estrange Astley, in 1930. The marriage was childless. She died in June 1974, aged 71. Lord Muirshiel remained a widower until his death in August 1992, aged 86. The viscountcy died with him. He is buried alongside a number of family members including the Barons Maclay in the Mount Zion Church graveyard in

Quarrier's Village Quarrier's Village is a small settlement in the Civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish of Kilmacolm in Inverclyde council area and the Counties of Scotland, historic county of Renfrewshire (historic), Renfrewshire in the west Central Lowlands of ...

near

Kilmacolm Kilmacolm () is a village and civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the northern slope of the Gryffe Valley, southeast of Greenock and aroun ...

in his former West Renfrewshire constituency.

References

*Torrance, David, ''The Scottish Secretaries'' (Birlinn 2006)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Lord-Lieutenants of Renfrewshire Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Secretaries of State for Scotland UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs who were granted peerages Scottish male rowers Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs Younger sons of barons Ministers in the Churchill caretaker government, 1945 Ministers in the third Churchill government, 1951–1955 Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957 Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Viscounts created by Elizabeth II

Background and education

Political career

Personal life

See also

References

External links