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John Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel

The Right Honourable The Viscount Muirshiel KT CH CMG PC DL
1962 portrait of Maclay by Herbert James Gunn.
Secretary of State for Scotland
In office 13 January 1957 – 13 July 1962
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Hon. James Stuart
Succeeded by	Michael Noble
Minister of State for the Colonies
In office 18 October 1956 – 13 January 1957
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	John Hare
Succeeded by	John Drummond
Minister of Civil Aviation
In office 31 October 1951 – 7 May 1952
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	David Rees-Williams
Succeeded by	Alan Lennox-Boyd
Chairman of the National Liberal Party
In office 1947–1956
Preceded by	Stanley Holmes
Succeeded by	James Duncan
Member of Parliament for West Renfrewshire
In office 23 February 1950 – 25 September 1964
Preceded by	Thomas Scollan
Succeeded by	Norman Buchan
Member of Parliament for Montrose Burghs
In office 5 July 1940 – 3 February 1950
Preceded by	Charles Kerr
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	(1905-10-26)26 October 1905 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	17 August 1992(1992-08-17) (aged 86) Kilmacolm, Scotland
Nationality	British
Political party	National Liberal Scottish Unionist
Spouse	Betty Astley ​ ​ (m. 1930; died 1974)​
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

John Scott Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel, KT, CH, CMG, PC, DL (26 October 1905 – 17 August 1992) was a British politician, sitting as a National Liberal and Conservative Member of Parliament before the party was fully assimilated into the Unionist Party in Scotland in the mid-1960s.^[1]

Lord Muirshiel served as Secretary of State for Scotland 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.

Background and education[edit]

Maclay was born in Glasgow in 1905, the fifth son of Joseph Paton Maclay, 1st Baron Maclay, and the younger brother of Joseph Maclay, 2nd Baron Maclay.^[2][3] He was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was bowman in the victorious Cambridge boat in the 1927 Boat Race.^{[citation needed]} At Cambridge, he was also a member of the University Pitt Club.^[4]

Political career[edit]

In 1940 Maclay was elected in a wartime by-election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Montrose Burghs.^[5] During the Second World War, he led the British Merchant shipping Mission to Washington, D.C., leading to his appointment to the Order of St Michael and St George as a Companion (CMG) in the 1944 Birthday Honours.^[6] In 1945 he briefly served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Production.^{[citation needed]} He retained his Montrose seat at the 1945 general election.^[7] During the 1945 to 1951 Labour government, he led the National Liberals in the House of Commons.^{[citation needed]} The Montrose Burghs constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, and Maclay was instead returned for West Renfrewshire,^[8] a seat he held until 1964. He served under Winston ChurchillasMinister of Civil Aviation and Minister of Transport between October 1951 and May 1952. In 1952 he was admitted to the Privy Council.

Maclay remained out of office until October 1956 when he was appointed Minister of State for the ColoniesbySir Anthony Eden. When Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister in January 1957, he was made Secretary of State for Scotland 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", when one-third of the Cabinet lost their ministries. In 1964 Maclay was raised to the peerage as Viscount Muirshiel, of Kilmacolm in the County of Renfrew.^[9] He had been made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1962^[10] and was made a Knight of the Thistle in 1973.^[11] From 1967 to 1980 he served as Lord-Lieutenant of Renfrewshire.^[2]

Personal life[edit]

Lord Muirshiel married Betty, daughter of Delaval Graham L'Estrange Astley, in 1930; they were married until her death in 1974.^[2] Lord Muirshiel died from heart failure at his home in Kilmacolm on 17 August 1992, at the age of 86.^[2] He had no children, and the viscountcy died with him.^[3] He is buried alongside a number of family members including the Barons Maclay in the Mount Zion Church graveyard in Quarrier's Village near Kilmacolm in his former West Renfrewshire constituency.^{[citation needed]}

See also[edit]

• List of Cambridge University Boat Race crews

References[edit]

• Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)

External links[edit]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Maclay