Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane

The Viscount Haldane
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
In office
10 June 1912 – 25 May 1915
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith
Preceded byThe Earl Loreburn
Succeeded byThe Lord Buckmaster
In office
22 January 1924 – 6 November 1924
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byThe Viscount Cave
Succeeded byThe Viscount Cave
Leader of the House of Lords
In office
22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byThe Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
Succeeded byThe Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
Secretary of State for War
In office
10 December 1905 – 12 June 1912
Prime MinisterSir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
H. H. Asquith
Preceded byH. O. Arnold-Forster
Succeeded byColonel J.E.B. Seely
Member of the House of Lords
Hereditary peerage
27 March 1911 – 19 August 1928
Member of Parliament
for Haddingtonshire
In office
18 December 1885 – 27 March 1911
Preceded byHugo Charteris
Succeeded byJohn Hope
Personal details
Born(1856-07-30)30 July 1856
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died19 August 1928(1928-08-19) (aged 72)
Auchterarder, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal (1879–1923)
Labour (1923–1928)
EducationUniversity of Göttingen
University of Edinburgh
ProfessionBarrister
17 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, birthplace of Richard Haldane
Haldane caricatured by Spy in Vanity Fair, 1896

Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, KT, OM, PC, FRS, FSA, FBA (/ˈhɔːldn/; 30 July 1856 – 19 August 1928) was a British lawyer and philosopher and an influential Liberal and later Labour politician. He was Secretary of State for War between 1905 and 1912 during which time the "Haldane Reforms" of the British Army were implemented. As an intellectual he was fascinated with German thought. That led to his role in seeking detente with Germany in 1912 in the Haldane Mission. The mission was a failure and tensions with Berlin forced London to work more closely with Paris.

Raised to the peerage as Viscount Haldane in 1911, he was Lord Chancellor between 1912 and 1915, when he was forced to resign because of allegations of German sympathies. He later joined the Labour Party and once again served as Lord Chancellor in 1924 in the first Labour administration. Apart from his legal and political careers, Haldane was also an influential writer on philosophy, in recognition of which he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1914.[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Debrett was invoked but never defined (see the help page).