The Viscount Horne of Slamannan | |
|---|---|
 Horne in 1922 | |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 1 April 1921 – 19 October 1922 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | Austen Chamberlain |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Baldwin |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 19 March 1920 – 1 April 1921 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | Sir Auckland Geddes |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Baldwin |
| Minister of Labour | |
| In office 10 January 1919 – 19 March 1920 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | George Henry Roberts |
| Succeeded by | Thomas James Macnamara |
| Member of Parliament forGlasgow Hillhead | |
| In office 14 December 1918 – 9 June 1937 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency created |
| Succeeded by | James Reid |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Stevenson Horne (1871-02-28)28 February 1871 |
| Died | 3 September 1940(1940-09-03) (aged 69) |
| Political party | Unionist |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
| Profession | Advocate |
Robert Stevenson Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan (28 February 1871 – 3 September 1940) was a Scottish businessman,advocate andUnionist politician. He served underDavid Lloyd George asMinister of Labour between 1919 and 1920, asPresident of the Board of Trade between 1920 and 1921 and asChancellor of the Exchequer between 1921 and 1922. In 1937 he was ennobled as Viscount Horne of Slamannan.
Horne was born atSlamannan,Stirlingshire, the son of Reverend Robert Stevenson Horne, the village'sChurch of Scotland minister, and Mary, daughter of Thomas Lockhead. He was educated atGeorge Watson's College inEdinburgh and theUniversity of Glasgow, where hestudied Law[citation needed] and was President of theStudents' Representative Council.[citation needed]
Horne then spent a year teachingphilosophy at theUniversity College of North Wales, before being elected to theFaculty of Advocates (Scottish Bar) in 1896.[citation needed] He became a successful advocate, specialising in commercial and shipping cases,[citation needed] and became aKing's Counsel in 1910. He also served asExaminer in Philosophy (1896–1900)[citation needed] andRector (1921–1924) at theUniversity of Aberdeen. He was a board member of several companies including directorships of theSuez Canal Company, chairman of theGreat Western Railway Company and director of several other companies and banks.[1]
During theFirst World War, Horne became Director of Railways on theWestern Front with the honorary rank ofLieutenant-Colonel in theRoyal Engineers. In 1917 he joined theAdmiralty as Assistant Inspector-General of Transportation, becoming Director of Materials and Priority in 1918, and Director of Labour andThird Civil Lord later the same year.[2]
Having unsuccessfully stood for Stirlingshire in both general elections of 1910,[citation needed] Horne was elected asMember of Parliament (MP) forGlasgow Hillhead in1918.[3] He served underDavid Lloyd George asMinister of Labour between 1919 and 1920, asPresident of the Board of Trade between 1920 and 1921 and asChancellor of the Exchequer between 1921 and 1922.[4] It was in that capacity that he was involved in the negotiations leading to the signing of theAnglo-Soviet Trade Agreement.Leonid Krasin pressurised Horne to support the treaty by threatening to cancel orders with textile mills inYorkshire, as only the mills with Soviet orders were working full-time.[5] When the treaty was signed, it was the first recognition by Britain of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.[citation needed]
When theLloyd George Coalition Government fell in 1922, Horne refused to join the new government ofBonar Law. Two years later,Stanley Baldwin offered to make Horne Minister of Labour once more, but Horne declined, preferring to concentrate on work inthe City.[1] Although he remained a Member of Parliament until 1937,[3] he never again held ministerial office. He was appointed aKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918 for his war services, and raised to Knight Grand Cross (GBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours for his services as Minister of Labour.[citation needed] In 1919, he was also sworn of thePrivy Council.[6] He was ennobled asViscount Horne of Slamannan, ofSlamannan in theCounty of Stirling, on 9 June 1937.[7]
Horne, a womanising bachelor, was famously referred to by Baldwin as a "Scotscad", a remark that has stuck.[8] He died in September 1940, aged 69. The viscountcy became extinct with his death.
Media related toRobert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan at Wikimedia Commons| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| New constituency | Member of Parliament forGlasgow Hillhead 1918–1937 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Labour 1919–1920 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Trade 1920–1921 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1921–1922 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Rector of the University of Aberdeen 1921–1924 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Horne of Slamannan 1937–1940 | Extinct |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
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