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Francis Campbell Ross Douglas, Baron Douglas of Barloch, 1889-1980

 

Journalist, solicitor and MP

Francis Campbell Ross Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas of Barloch KCMG (21 October 1889 – 30 March 1980), was a British journalist, solicitor and Labour politician.

Douglas was educated at Glasgow University and later became a partner in Douglas & Company, solicitors, and also worked as a journalist. He was returned to Parliament for Battersea North at a by-election in 1940, a seat he held until 1946, and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education from 1940 to 1945 and to the Home Secretary from 1945 to 1946 (James Chuter Ede held both positions). The latter year he resigned from the House of Commons on being appointed Governor of Malta, which he remained until 1949. Douglas was made a KCMG in 1947 and in 1950 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Douglas of Barloch, of Maxfield in the County of Sussex. He was also a member of the Public Works Loan Board from 1936 to 1946 and of the Railway Assessment Committee from 1938 to 1946 and served as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the London County Council from 1940 to 1946. After being raised to the peerage he was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords.

Lord Douglas of Barloch died in March 1980, aged 90. The title became extinct on his death.

He was survived by his daughter, Hon Frances Margaret Douglas, Fellow of Royal college of Anaethetists, 1957. She married Kenneth Ulyatt, and has issue.

Born 1889 (in Manitoba?): educated at Glasgow University; Member, Public Works Loan Board, 1936-1946; Member, Railway Assessment Authority, 1938-1946; Labour MP for North Battersea, 1940-1946; Parliamentary Private Secretary to Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education, 1940-1945; Chairman, Finance Committee, London County Council, 1940-1946; Member, Anglo-Scottish Railway Assessment Authority, 1941-1946; Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, 1945-1946; temporary Chairman, House of Commons and Chairman of Standing Committees, 1945-1946; Governor and Commander in Chief, Malta, 1946-1949; KCMG 1947; Vice-Chairman, Corby Development Corporation, 1950-1962; Deputy Speaker, House of Lords, 1962-[1980]; LLD, Royal University of Malta; Partner in Douglas & Company, Solicitors; died 1980.

Publications: Agriculture and Land Value Taxation (United Committee for the Taxation of Land Values, London, 1930); Land-Value Rating. Theory and practice (L. & V. Woolf, London, 1936); Rating and Taxation in the Housing Scene (J. M. Dent & Sons, London & Letchworth, 1942); Social Science Manual. Guide to the study of Henry George's 'Progress and Poverty' (Henry George Foundation of Great Britain, London, 1937); abridged George Henry's 'Protection or Free Trade' (Kegan Paul & Co, London, 1929).

Sources: Who's Who 1897-1996, http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/1/2835.htm 

He is a nephew of Dr Carstairs Cumming Douglas