Alexander Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh
Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh, KT, GCMG (January 13, 1849) - (July 6, 1921) was a Scottish Unionist politician and statesman. The son of
Robert Bruce, at one time Tory Member of Parliament
for Clackmannan, he was born in the county and
educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford.
In 1868, four years after his death, Robert Bruce's claim to the peerage was recognised by the
House of Lords, and so his son became sixth Lord Balfour of Burleigh on the reversal of the title's
In 1876, Balfour married Lady Katherine Eliza Gordon, youngest daughter of the fifth Earl of Aberdeen, and was that same year elected a Scottish representative peer. Six years later, he was made an Education Commissioner for Scotland, and in 1887 he entered Lord Salisbury's administration as a Lord in Waiting. The following year, Lord Balfour became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, a position he held until the Liberals returned to power in 1892, and for three years he chaired the London Water Supply Commission until his return to government as Secretary for Scotland in 1895.
Appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1901, Balfour resigned office two years later with the split that occurred in the Conservative and Unionist Party over Joseph Chamberlain's campaign for tariff reform, a campaign which he instransigently opposed. He was later Governor of the Bank of Scotland, was an important negotiator in the discussions on church union in Scotland which came to fruition in the 1920s, and became Lord Warden of the Stannaries in Cornwall and a member of the Council of the Prince of Wales in 1908. He was also made a GCMG in 1911.
Lord Balfour of Burleigh was Rector of the University of Edinburgh from 1896 to 1899, and was elected Chancellor of the University of St Andrews in 1900, a post he held until his death in London. He was buried in Clackmannan.
References
Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Earl of Onslow |
Lord-in-Waiting 1887–1889 |
Succeeded by The Viscount Torrington |
| Preceded by Sir George Otto Trevelyan |
Secretary for
Scotland 1895–1903 |
Succeeded by Andrew Graham Murray |
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
| Preceded by Robert Balfour |
Lord Balfour of
Burleigh 1869–1903 |
Succeeded by George Bruce |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Baron Robertson |
Rector of the
University of Edinburgh 1896–1899 |
Succeeded by Marquess of Dufferin and Ava |
| Preceded by The 8th Duke of Argyll |
Chancellor of the University of St Andrews 1900–1922 |
Succeeded by The Earl Haig |
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