Captain The Right Honourable The Viscount Stuart of Findhorn CH MVO MC* PC
Photograph of Stuart by Walter Stoneman, taken August 1943.
Secretary of State for Scotland
In office 30 October 1951 – 9 January 1957
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill Sir Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Hector McNeil
Succeeded by	John Maclay
Chief Whip of the House of Commons Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office 14 January 1941 – 26 July 1945 Serving with Charles Edwards and William Whiteley
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Charles Edwards
Succeeded by	William Whiteley
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office 1 May 1935 – 14 January 1941
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Lambert Ward
Succeeded by	Thomas Dugdale
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 20 November 1959 – 20 February 1971 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	The 2nd Viscount Stuart of Findhorn
Member of Parliament for Moray and Nairn
In office 6 December 1923 – 8 October 1959
Preceded by	Thomas Maule Guthrie
Succeeded by	Gordon Campbell
Personal details
Born	(1897-02-09)9 February 1897 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	20 February 1971(1971-02-20) (aged 74)
Nationality	British
Political party	Unionist
Spouse	Lady Rachel Cavendish ​ ​ (m. 1923)​
Children	3

James Gray Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn, CH, MVO, MC*, PC (9 February 1897 – 20 February 1971) was a British Unionist politician. He was joint-Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury in Winston Churchill's war-time coalition government and later served as Secretary of State for Scotland under Churchill and then Sir Anthony Eden from 1951 to 1957. In 1959 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stuart of Findhorn.

Background

Born in Edinburgh, Stuart was the third and youngest son of Morton Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray, and Edith Douglas Palmer, daughter of Rear-Admiral George Palmer.

Military service

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I Stuart was commissioned from the Officers' Training Corps into the Special Reserve as a probationary Second lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Scots^[1] (his probation completed in Jan 1915^[2]) and served in the war, reaching the rank of Captain. He was awarded the Military Cross^[3] and Bar^[4] in 1917.

He was appointed Equerry to HRH Prince Albert in June 1920,^[5] and was appointed a Member (4th Class) of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1922 New Year Honours, with the award dated 3 Dec 1921.^[6]

Political career

Stuart sat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Moray and Nairn from 1923 to 1959.^[7] He served as a Lord of the Treasury from 1935 to 1941 under successively Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill and was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1939 Birthday Honours.^[8] In 1941 Churchill promoted him to joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Government Chief Whip), which he remained until 1945. He continued as Conservative Chief Whip until 1948. In 1950 he became Chairman of the Scottish Unionist Party, a post he held until 1962.

When the Conservatives returned to power under Churchill in 1951, Stuart was made Secretary of State for Scotland, with a seat in the cabinet. He continued in this post until 1957, the last two years under the premiership of Sir Anthony Eden. He was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1957. On 20 November 1959 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stuart of Findhorn, of Findhorn in the County of Moray.^[9]

Family

Lord Stuart of Findhorn married Lady Rachel Cavendish,^[10] daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire (and sister of Dorothy Cavendish, wife of Harold Macmillan), in 1923.

He had earlier been noted as a suitor of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon while serving as an equerry to her eventual husband Prince Albert, Duke of York (the future King George VI).

Lord and Lady Stuart had two sons and one daughter.

• David, 2nd Viscount Stuart of Findhorn (1924-1999)
• John, a Royal Navy lieutenant (1925-1990)
• Jean (Mrs Michael Ritchie) born 7 January 1932.

Lord Stuart died in February 1971, aged 74, and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his eldest son, David. Lady Stuart of Findhorn died in October 1977.

Arms

Coat of arms of James Stuart, 1st Viscount Stuart of Findhorn

Crest In a nest Vert a pelican feeding her young Or about her neck a collar engrailed Gules. Escutcheon Quarterly 1st Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory counterflory Gules all within a bordure compony Azure and Argent (Stuart) 2nd Or a fess chequy Azure and Argent (Stewart of Downe) 3rd Or three cushions within a double tressure flory counterflory Gules (Randolph) 4th Gules a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed Argent (Gray) all within a bordure Or for difference. Supporters Two capercailzie Proper their wings closed. Motto Saius Per Christum Redemptorem[11]