John Colville


(Baron Clydesmuir of Braidwood)

1894 - 1954

Industrialist and politician. Born into the family of Motherwell iron and steel-makers, Colville was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge. Following service in the First World War, during which he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Colville stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in the General Election of 1922. He was elected for Midlothian and Peebles in 1929 and went on to serve as Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1936-38) and then Secretary of State for Scotland (1938-40). He left Parliament in 1943 to serve as the last Governor of Bombay. In 1948, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Clydesmuir of Braidwood.

Colville commissioned Sir Basil Spence (1907-76) to build Gribloch, near Kippen, as his home in 1939. He served in the Royal Company of Archers and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire in 1952.

His son Ronald John Bilsland Colville became Governor of the Bank of Scotland.


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