The Right Honourable

The Lord Kinross
Photograph of Lord Kinross, by Allan Warren
Born
John Patrick Douglas Balfour

(1904-06-24)24 June 1904
Died4 June 1976(1976-06-04) (aged 71)
Spouse
Angela Mary Culme-Seymour
​
​
(m. 1938; div. 1942)​
Parent(s)Patrick Balfour, 2nd Baron Kinross
Caroline Johnstone-Douglas
RelativesArthur Johnstone-Douglas (grandfather)

John Patrick Douglas Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (25 June 1904 – 4 June 1976) was a Scottish historian and writer noted for his biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and other works on Islamic history.[1][2]

Early life

Railway Club at Oxford, conceived by John Sutro, dominated by Harold Acton. Left to right, back: Henry Yorke, Roy Harrod, Henry Weymouth, David Plunket Greene, Harry Stavordale, Brian Howard; middle row: Michael Rosse, John Sutro, Hugh Lygon, Harold Acton, Bryan Guinness, Patrick Balfour, Mark Ogilvie-Grant, Johnny Drury-Lowe; front: porters.

Balfour was born on 25 June 1904. He was the eldest son of Patrick Balfour, 2nd Baron Kinross and Caroline Elsie Johnstone-Douglas (1879–1969).[3]

His paternal grandparents were the Lord Justice General John Balfour, 1st Baron Kinross and, his first wife, Lilias Oswald Mackenzie (a daughter of Donald Mackenzie, Lord Mackenzie). His maternal grandparents were Jane Maitland Hathorn-Stewart and Arthur Johnstone-Douglas, an member of the extended Marquess of Queensberry family.[3]

He was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford,[4] where he was a member of the Railway Club.[5] He then became a journalist and writer.

Career

A prominent historian, Lord Kinross was a writer noted for his biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and other works on Islamic history.[1]

During the Second World War he served with the Royal Air Force and from 1944 to 1947 was First Secretary at the British Embassy at Cairo.[6]

Personal life

Baron Kinross monument, Dean Cemetery

In 1938, he married Angela Mary Culme-Seymour (1912–2012), daughter of George Culme-Seymour and Janet (née Orr-Ewing) and former wife of the artist John Spencer-Churchill. Having been separated by World War II when Balfour was posted to Cairo, she started a five-year relationship with Major Robert Hewer-Hewitt by whom she had two sons, Mark and Johnny. Patrick and Angela were divorced in 1942.[7]

Despite the brief marriage, Lord Kinross was homosexual; he had no issue and was succeeded by his brother David Andrew Balfour, 4th Baron Kinross.[8]

He is buried in "Lords Row" in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh with all previous ancestors of the title Baron Kinross.

In 1974 John Betjeman wrote the poem For Patrick: aetat LXX published in his A Nip in the Air, with a footnote giving Balfour's name and title.[9]

Books

  • Society Racket. A Critical Survey of Modern Social Life (1933)
  • The Ruthless Innocent (1949) Supposedly based on the character of Angela Culme-Seymour
  • The Orphaned Realm: Journeys in Cyprus (1951)
  • Within the Taurus: A Journey in Asiatic Turkey (1954)
  • Portrait of Greece with photographs in colour by Dimitri, Max Parrish: London (1956)
  • Europa Minor: Journeys in Coastal Turkey (1956)
  • The Kindred Spirit; a history of gin and of the House of Booth (London, 1959)
  • The Innocents at Home [An account of the author's travels in the United States of America] (1959)
  • Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation (London. 1964)
  • Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey (New York. 1965)
  • Portrait of Egypt (1966)
  • The Windsor Years: The Life of Edward, as Prince of Wales, King, and Duke of Windsor (1967)
  • Between Two Seas: The Creation of the Suez Canal (1968)
  • Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977) ISBN 0-688-08093-6
  • Hagia Sophia :A History of Constantinople ISBN 9780882250151 (1979) Newsweek Book Division

References

  1. 1 2 "Ancestors of Gavin R.J. Dallmeyer: Patrick Balfour". Familytreemaker.genealogy.com. 25 June 1904. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Cracroft's Peerage". Cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1924. p. 1320. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  4. ↑ Winchester College Register 1915-1960 pp 77-78.
  5. ↑ Lancaster, Marie-Jaqueline (2005). Brian Howard: Portrait of a Failure. Timewell Press. p. 122. ISBN 9781857252118. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  6. ↑ Winchester College Record
  7. ↑ The Daily Telegraph: Angela Culme-Seymour. 3 February 2012.
  8. ↑ On Balfour's homosexuality see Candida Lycett Green, ed. and introduction, John Betjeman: Letters [2 vols, London: Methuen, 1994, reprinted 2006], i, 44).
  9. ↑ Betjeman, John (1974). A Nip in the Air. Albemarle St, London: John Murray. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0719531748.
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