John Balfour, 1st Baron Kinross

John Blair Balfour, 1st Baron Kinross, PC, QC (11 July 1837 – 22 January 1905) was a Scottish lawyer and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1899.

Balfour was born in Clackmannan, the son of Rev. P Balfour Minister of Clackmannan and his wife Jane Ramsay Blair, daughter of John Blair. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University, becoming an advocate of the Scottish bar in 1861. 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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.

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 and Lord President of the Court of Session, and in 1902 was created Baron Kinross, of Glascune in the County of Haddingtonshire.

Balfour died aged 67 in Edinburgh and was buried in the city's Dean Cemetery.

Balfour married Lillias Oswald Mackenzie daughter of Lord Mackenzie in 1869. He married secondly in 1877 Hon. Marianne Eliza Moncrieff, daughter of James Moncreiff, 1st Baron Moncreiff

References

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Balfour