Niall Macpherson, 1st Baron Drumalbyn

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Drumalbyn | honorific_suffix = KBE PC | image = | image_size = | caption = | order1 = Minister of Pensions and National Insurance | term_start1 = 16 July 1962 | term_end1 = 20 October 1963 | monarch1 = Elizabeth II | prime_minister1 = Harold Macmillan | predecessor1 = John Boyd-Carpenter | successor1 = Hon. Richard Wood | order2 = Joint Minister of State for Trade with Edward du Cann | term_start2 = 23 October 1963 | term_end2 = 16 October 1964 | monarch2 = Elizabeth II | prime_minister2 = Sir Alec Douglas-Home | predecessor2 = Alan Green The Lord Derwent | successor2 = George Darling Edward Redhead | birth_date = {{birth date text|3 August 1908|}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|11 October 1987|3 August 1908}} | death_place = | party = Scottish Unionist National Liberal | alma_mater = Trinity College, Oxford | spouse = Margaret Runge (d. 1979) }} '''Niall Malcolm Stewart Macpherson, 1st Baron Drumalbyn''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|KBE|PC}} (3 August 1908 – 11 October 1987) was a Scottish Tory and National Liberal politician.

==Background and education== The member of an important Liberal family from Inverness-shire, Macpherson was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Stewart Macpherson and Helen, daughter of Reverend Archibald Borland Cameron. He was the brother of George Macpherson and Sir Tommy Macpherson and a nephew of Lord Strathcarron. He was educated at Fettes College and Trinity College, Oxford.<ref name="thepeerage.com">[http://thepeerage.com/p25329.htm#i253282 thepeerage.com Niall Malcolm Stewart Macpherson, 1st and last Baron Drumalbyn]</ref> He initially worked in business, representing a firm in Turkey. He joined the Cameron Highlanders from 1939, serving in World War II including in Madagascar.

==Political career== Macpherson was elected Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire at the 1945 general election. He served as Liberal-Unionist Scottish whip from 1950 to 1955, when he was appointed Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland by Sir Anthony Eden, a post he retained when Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister in early 1957. In 1960 he was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. Two years later Macpherson was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Minister of Pensions and National Insurance. In October 1963 he was made Joint-Minister of State for Trade by the new Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home,<ref name="thepeerage.com"/> and the following month he was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Drumalbyn''', of Whitesands in the Royal Burgh of Dumfries.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=43156 |date=12 November 1963 |page=9249 }}</ref> He continued at the Board of Trade until the Conservative government fell at the 1964 general election. He was once again a member of the government as Minister without Portfolio under Edward Heath from 1970 to 1974.<ref name="thepeerage.com"/>

{{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Niall Macpherson Indemnity Act 1954 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom | long_title = An Act to indemnify Niall Macpherson, Esquire, from any penal consequences which he may have incurred by sitting or voting as a member of the House of Commons while holding the office of member of the London agency of the Dried Fruits Control Board of the Commonwealth of Australia, and to remove any disqualification for membership of that House by reason of his having held that office. | year = 1954 | citation = 2 & 3 Eliz. 2. c. 29 | introduced_commons = | introduced_lords = | territorial_extent = | royal_assent = 13 May 1954 | commencement = | expiry_date = | repeal_date = | amends = | replaces = | amendments = | repealing_legislation = Representation of the People Act 1969 | related_legislation = | status = repealed | legislation_history = | theyworkforyou = | millbankhansard = | original_text = https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9wuAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA66 | revised_text = | use_new_UK-LEG = | UK-LEG_title = | collapsed = yes }} In 1954, his membership of the London agency of the Dried Fruits Control Board of the Commonwealth of Australia gave rise to concern that he might be disqualified from sitting or voting as a member of the House of Commons by virtue of the Succession to the Crown Act 1707. To avoid this problem, an Act of Indemnity, the '''{{visible anchor|Niall Macpherson Indemnity Act 1954}}''' (2 & 3 Eliz. 2. c. 29), was passed.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1954/may/11/niall-macpherson-indemnity-bill House of Commons Hansard, 11 May 1954, column 1157.]</ref><ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1954/may/13/niall-macpherson-indemnity-bill House of Lords Hansard, 13 May 1954, column 594.]</ref>

Lord Drumalbyn was also chairman of the British Commonwealth Producers' Organization from 1952 and a member of the BBC General Advisory Council. In 1974 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46186 |date=18 January 1974 |page=753 }}</ref>

==Family== Lord Drumalbyn married Margaret Phyllis, daughter of Julius Joseph Runge, in 1937.<ref name=Burkes>{{cite book |last= Mosley |first= Charles|date= 2003|title= Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 107th Edition |location= Crans, Switzerland |publisher= Burke’s Peerage |page= 3773}}</ref> They had three daughters, Jean Stewart Macpherson, who married James Weatherall, Mary Stewart Macpherson, who married Philip Dudley Wilson and Howard Alvine Rees; and (Helen) Norah Macpherson (1947–1969), who died unmarried.<ref name=Burkes/> Lady Drumalbyn died on 13 August 1979.<ref name=Burkes/> In 1985, Lord Drumalbyn married Rita, widow of Harry Edmiston.<ref name=Addenda>{{cite book |last= Hammond |first= Peter W. |date= 1998|title=The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant: Addenda and Corrigenda |location= Gloucestershire, England |publisher= Sutton Publishing, Ltd. |page= 838|volume = XIV|isbn= 0-7509-0154-3 }}</ref> Lord Drumalbyn died on 11 October 1987, aged 79. The title became extinct on his death as he had no sons.<ref name=Burkes/> His widow died on 12 March 2014.

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == *{{Hansard-contribs | mr-niall-macpherson | Niall Macpherson }}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire | years=1945–1963 | before=Henry Fildes | after=David Colville Anderson }} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title=Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland | with = Jack Browne 1955–1959 Lord John Hope 1957–1959 Tam Galbraith 1959–1960 | years= 1955–1960 | before=Jack Browne James Henderson Stewart | after=Tam Galbraith Gilmour Leburn }} {{succession box | title=Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade | years= 1960–1962 | before=John Rodgers | after=David Price }} {{succession box | title=Minister of Pensions and National Insurance | years=1962–1963 | before=John Boyd-Carpenter | after=Hon. Richard Wood }} {{succession box | title=Joint Minister of State for Trade | with = Edward du Cann | years= 1963–1964 | before=Alan Green The Lord Derwent | after= George Darling Edward Redhead }} {{succession box | title=Minister without Portfolio | years=1970–1974 | before=George Thomson '''(1968–1969)''' | after=The Lord Aberdare }} {{s-reg|uk}} {{s-new | creation}} {{s-ttl | title = Baron Drumalbyn | years = 1963–1987 }} {{s-non | reason = Extinct }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drumalbyn, Niall Macpherson, 1st Baron}} Category:1908 births Category:1987 deaths Category:Nobility from Highland (council area) Category:People educated at Fettes College Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Category:Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders officers Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers Macpherson, Niall Category:Parliamentary secretaries to the Board of Trade Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Macpherson, Niall Macpherson, Niall Macpherson, Niall Macpherson, Niall Macpherson, Niall Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957 Category:Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Category:Hereditary barons created by Elizabeth II