Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso KT CMG PC (October 22, 1890 – June 15, 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair from 1912 until 1952, was a Scottish politician and leader of the British Liberal Party. James VII ordained the modern Order. ... On the Orders insignia, St Michael is often depicted subduing Satan. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... October 22 is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 70 days remaining. ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ... June 15 is the 166th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (167th in leap years), with 199 days remaining. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ...

Educated at Eton College, Sinclair served on the Western Front during the First World War and rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. He served as second in command to Winston Churchill when Churchill commanded the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the Ploegsteert Wood sector of the Western Front in 1915, Churchill having been disgraced after Gallipoli. They formed a lasting friendship that would become a significant political alliance in later decades. The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a prestigious and internationally known Public School for boys. ... Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West. ... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard... This article is becoming very long. ... The Royal Scots Fusiliers is a Regiment of the British army. ... Ploegsteert Wood: a sector of the Western Front in Flanders in World War 1. ... Satellite image of the Gallipoli peninsula and surrounding area Gallipoli, called Gelibolu in modern Turkish, (Greek: Καλλίπολις), is a town in northwestern Turkey. ...

In 1922 he entered the House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Caithness and Sutherland supporting David Lloyd George, defeating the incumbent Liberal supporter of Herbert Henry Asquith. He rose through the Liberal ranks as the party shrank in Parliament, becoming Chief Whip by 1930. In 1931 the Liberal Party joined the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald and Sinclair held the post of Secretary of State for Scotland. The following year he, together with other Liberal ministers, resigned from the government in protest at the Ottawa Conference introducing a series of tariff agreements. Sinclair and the Liberal leader, Sir Herbert Samuel, were thus the last Liberal politicians to sit in the Cabinet. 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Caithness and Sutherland was a constituency the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997. ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman and the last member of the Liberal Party to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... The Right Honourable Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC (12 September 1852–15 February 1928) served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. ... The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... In the United Kingdom the term National Government is in an abstract sense used to refer to a coalition of some or all major political parties. ... James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866–9 November 1937) was a British politician and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... The Secretary of State for Scotland (Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is the chief minister in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilites for Scotland, at the head of the Scotland Office (formerly The Scottish Office). ... The British Empire Economic Conference was a 1932 conference of British colonies and the autonomous dominions held to discuss the Great Depression. ... Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (1870-1963) was a British politician and diplomat. ...

In the 1935 general election, Samuel lost his seat. Sinclair became the party's leader at the head of only twenty MPs. With the party now clearly marginalised as a third party on the fringe, with few distinct domestic policies, with a parliamentary party that was primarily a collection of individuals elected as much for themselves as for their party, and with the separate Liberal Nationals offering competition amongst Liberal inclined voters, Sinclair fought to make the Liberals once more a relevant force in British politics, taking up the issues of opposition to the continental dictatorships and working worked closely with Winston Churchill who was a backbencher at that time and generally shunned by his Conservative Party. When Churchill formed an all-party coalition government in 1940, Sinclair became Secretary of State for Air. However he did not sit in the small War Cabinet, though he was invited to attend meetings discussing any political matter. As Secretary for Air, he played a leading role in planning the firebombing and destruction of Dresden. He remained a minister until May 1945 when the coalition ended. In the 1945 general election, he narrowly lost his seat. His margin of defeat is one of the tightest on record - he came third, even though the victor had only 59 votes more than him. Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee The UK general election held on 14th November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin. ... National Liberal Party was a name used by two groups of politicians, who had formerly been associated with the Liberal Party. ... This article is becoming very long. ... A backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislature who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition. ... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative & Unionist Party) is currently the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), and the largest in terms of public membership. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The Secretary of State for Air was a cabinet level British position, in charge of the Air Ministry. ... A War Cabinet is committee formed by a government in time of war. ... Dresden (Sorbian: Drježdźany; etymologically from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the riverside forest) is the capital city of the German Federal State of Saxony and situated in a valley on the River Elbe. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Clement Attlee Winston Churchill The United Kingdom General Election of 1945 held on 5 July 1945 but not counted and declared until 26 July 1945 (due to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas) was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th...

There was speculation that he might return to the Commons and the leadership, as the Conservative victor in his seat had promised to only serve in parliament until the end of war with Japan, a pledge he kept modifying to serving just one more year, every year. Sinclair awaited the imminent by-election, which never materialised. At the 1950 general election Sinclair again stood for his old seat and moved to second place, but in yet another close election, he was 269 votes away from victory. In 1952 he accepted elevation to the House of Lords as Viscount Thurso. He was expected to take up the leadership of the Liberal group in the House of Lords, but a series of strokes in the mid-fifties left him in a state of precarious health until his death in 1970. The United Kingdom general election in 1950 was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... Viscount Thurso is a peerage title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ...

In the 1990s, his grandson, John Thurso entered politics and now sits as a Liberal Democrat MP for his grandfather's seat, now called Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. Sinclair's granddaughter Veronica Linklater, Baroness Linklater of Butterstone, is also a Liberal Democrat politician. John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso John Archibald Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso (born 10 September 1953), known as John Thurso, is a Scottish businessman and Liberal Democrat politician. ... The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. ... Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Veronica Linklater, Baroness Linklater of Butterstone, (b. ...

Further reading

• Violet Bonham Carter, ed. Mark Pottle, Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries of Violet Bonham Carter 1914-1945 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998)
• Gerard DeGroot, Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair (New York University Press, 1993)
• ed. Ian Hunter, Winston and Archie: The collected correspondence of Winston Churchill and Sir Archibald Sinclair (Politico's, 2005)
• Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)

1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Caithness and Sutherland was a constituency the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997. ... The UK general election of 1922 was held on 15th November 1922. ... Clement Attlee Winston Churchill The United Kingdom General Election of 1945 held on 5 July 1945 but not counted and declared until 26 July 1945 (due to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas) was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th... Eric Leslie Gandar Dower (1894 - 4 October 1987) was a Scottish Conservative politican and businessman, He was educated at Brighton College, like his elder brother Leonard, and at Jesus College, Cambridge, and trained for the stage at RADA, touring with a number of theatre companies. ... William Adamson (1863–1936) was born in Dunfermline, Scotland and worked as a miner in Fife where he became involved with the National Union of Mineworkers. ... The Secretary of State for Scotland (Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is the chief minister in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilites for Scotland, at the head of the Scotland Office (formerly The Scottish Office). ... The Rt. ... Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (1870-1963) was a British politician and diplomat. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... Clement Edward Davies (February 19, 1884–March 23, 1962) was a UK politician and leader of the Liberal Party between 1945 and 1956. ... Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood (1880-1959), more commonly known as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a British Conservative politician who served in various capacities in the Conservative and National governments of the 1920s and 1930s. ... The Secretary of State for Air was a cabinet level British position, in charge of the Air Ministry. ... Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. ... // The Baronetage of Nova Scotia was devised in 1624 as a means of settling the plantation of that province. ... Viscount Thurso is a peerage title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ... The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801. ... Viscount Thurso is a peerage title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ...

See Also

• 241 squadron

241 (Wanstead and Woodford) Squadron ATC was formed on the 3rd February 1941 and is currently one of the largest squadron in the Air Training Corps with approximately 160 cadets and 20 adult staff. ...

External link

• Sir Archibald Sinclair (Viscount Thurso) 1890-1970 biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group