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Alexander Hugh Bruce Balfour of Burleigh

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"ALEXANDER HUGH BRUCE, BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH Loth (or 6TH) Baron (1849-1921), British politician, was born at Kennet, Alloa, Jan. 13 1849, the son of Robert Bruce of Kennet. He was educated at Loretto, Eton and Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1869 was restored by Act of Parliament to the barony of Balfour of Burleigh, to which he was entitled by his descent from the 5th baron, who was attainted after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. He first came into public notice as a member of the factory commission of 1874, and afterwards acted as chairman of many other commissions, including that on educational endowments (1882-9). From 1889 to 1892 he was parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade in the Conservative Government, and from 1895 to 1903 (when he resigned as a Free Trader opposed to tariff reform) Secretary for Scotland. In 1903 he became chairman of the commission on food supply in time of war, and in 1909 of that on trade relations with Canada and the West Indies, receiving in 1911 the G.C.M.G. as a reward for his services. From 1916 to 1917 he was chairman of the committee on commercial and industrial policy after the war. Lord Balfour, who received hon. degrees from all the Scottish universities, was from 1896 to 1899 lord rector of Edinburgh University and from 1900 chancellor of St. Andrews University. In 1904 he was appointed Lord Warden of the Stannaries. He published in 1911 The Rise and Development of Presbyterianism in Scotland. He died in London July 6 1921.