John Balfour, 1st Baron Kinross

Balfour was born in the manse at Clackmannan, the son of Rev. Peter Balfour ("Perpendicular Peter"),[1] minister of Clackmannan and his wife Jane Ramsay Blair, daughter of John Blair.

He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and then studied law at Edinburgh University, becoming an advocate of the Scottish bar in 1861.

"the Lord Advocate"
Balfour as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, May 1886

He served as Advocate Depute from 1870 to 1872, and in 1880 was made a Queen's Counsel. He was a Deputy Lieutenant for Edinburgh.[2]

At the 1880 general election, Balfour stood unsuccessfully for parliament at Ayrshire North but in a by election six months later was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Clackmannan and Kinross.[3]

He was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in 1880 and in 1881 he succeeded this appointment by becoming Lord Advocate, a post he held for four years. In 1882 he became a Privy Counsellor.[3] He served as the elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates twice: from 1885 to 1886, and from 1889 to 1892.[4]

In 1892, on the return of the Liberals to power, Balfour was again appointed Lord Advocate, finally resigning on the fall of Lord Rosebery's government in 1895. In 1899 he was appointed Lord Justice General of Scotland and Lord President of the Court of Session.

In the 1902 Coronation Honours list it was announced that he would receive a barony,[5] and on 15 July 1902 he was created Baron Kinross, of Glascune in the County of Haddingtonshire.[6][3] He took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords the following month, on 7 August.[7]

6 Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh (left)

Baron Kinross monument, Dean Cemetery

On 4 August 1869 Balfour married Lilias Oswald Mackenzie daughter of Donald Mackenzie, styled Lord Mackenzie, a Lord of Session, and Janet Alice Mitchell. They had one son who lived with the family and was trained as an advocate:[8]

• Patrick Balfour, 2nd Baron Kinross (1870–1939), who married Caroline Elsie Johnstone-Douglas, a daughter of Arthur Johnstone-Douglas.[9]

After the death of his first wife, he married secondly the Hon. Marianne Eliza Moncrieff in 1877.[10] Marianne was a daughter of James Moncreiff, 1st Baron Moncreiff.[3] Together, they were the parents of five children, four sons and one daughter, including:[11]

• Hon. James Moncreiffe Balfour (1878–1960), who married Madeline Maude Graham Watson, daughter of James Graham Watson (brother-in-law of Sir Robert Tuite Boothby), in 1908.[8]
• Hon. John Ramsay Blair Balfour (1881–1964), a Lt.-Cdr. in the Royal Navy who died unmarried.[8]
• Hon. Harry Robert Chichester Balfour (1882–1964), who married Dorothy Constance Chetwynd, a daughter of Henry Goulburn Willoughby Chetwynd and Eva Constance Elizabeth Fanny Berney, in 1921.[8]
• Hon. Norman Frederick William Balfour (1884–1954), the Vicar of Leafield who died unmarried.[8]
• Hon. Isobel Nora Gwendoline Balfour (1885–1961), who married Capt. Percival Henry Havelock Bailey, in 1908.[8]

Lord Kinross died 22 January 1905, at his home at 6 Rothesay Terrace[12] in Edinburgh, and was buried in the "Lords Row" in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. His descendants are buried with him. [3]

• Omond, George William Thomson (1912). "Balfour, John Blair" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 89–90.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Balfour
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 4)