Interview: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

Published on Friday 4 December 2009 09:47

HE WAS a page boy at the Queen's coronation, boxed against Antarctic explorer Ranulph Fiennes at Eton and later became an earl for four days.

His wedding – to the granddaughter of The 39 Steps author John Buchan – was disrupted by a bomb hoax and he witnessed John F Kennedy's famous visit to Cold War Berlin.

Yet, despite all that, James Douglas-Hamilton is often said to have made a career out of being underestimated. The Tory MP for Edinburgh West for 23 years and a former Scottish Office minister was known as Gentleman Jim and dubbed "too nice" to be a politician. But he proved himself a political survivor, as an MP, MSP and now a peer.

Now he has published his memoirs, entitled After you, Prime Minister, of an aristocratic life and political career.

But for Lord James – or Lord Selkirk of Douglas, to give him his correct title – politeness always seemed to come before politics.

There were stories of him telling elderly voters: "You don't have to vote for me, but it would be terribly kind of you if you did."

He also recalls how as a minister he could not resist leaping out of his official car when he had a female driver to open the door for her, and not the other way round.

The second son of the 14th Duke of Hamilton, Lord James was born in Dungavel House, Lanarkshire, now a detention centre for asylum seekers.

He moved to Lennoxlove, near Haddington, when he was six, and recalls being taught at Belhaven Hill School in Dunbar by a French master called Colin Mason, brother of film star James Mason.

He learned the basics of boxing from his father on the beach at North Berwick, which stood him in good stead for Eton. There, he won 14 out of his 18 fights, sparring with Sir Ranulph Fiennes. He was later a boxing blue at Oxford.

There was verbal sparring, too. Lord James says it was Willie Gladstone, great grandson of the 19th century Liberal Prime Minister and one of his tutors at Eton, who kindled his interest in debating. He would beat Jonathan Aitken – the disgraced Tory Cabinet minister – to become secretary of the Oxford Union.

It was on a debating trip that he first met Donald Dewar. They were detained by border guards as they tried to go to East Berlin, but were later rewarded when they stood just 100ft away from President Kennedy as he delivered his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

At Oxford, Lord James was almost thrown out of his degree exams for wearing brown shoes instead of black ones. Given only a few minutes to rectify his faux pas, he dashed off to see his friend Neil MacCormick, later a law professor and leading Scottish Nationalist.

He says: "He lent me a large pair of somewhat leaky but very definitely black shoes. I always attributed full responsibility for my Oxford MA to him."

After four years of legal training back in Edinburgh, he became an advocate in 1968. His first case, a divorce, was given to him by a solicitor called Winnie Ewing – who had become the SNP MP for Hamilton the previous year and would later become a fellow member of the Scottish Parliament.

Other young advocates at the time included John Smith, Menzies Campbell and Malcolm Rifkind. Rifkind was an Edinburgh councillor and he persuaded Lord James to become the Tory candidate in Murrayfield/Cramond, where he won the 1972 by-election.

Two years later, he was looking for a Westminster seat to fight, but also found whirlwind romance. On a trip to West Aberdeenshire, he stayed with Lady Tweedsmuir, a former Scottish Office minister, and met her daughter Susan. He later proposed and they married within six months.

"On the day of the wedding, unbeknown to us, there had been a hoax telephone call to the Evening News saying there had was a bomb in the Canongate Kirk where our wedding was to be held. Fortunately, there was no bomb, but the threat accounted for the presence of large men in tailcoats at the reception, whose boots gave them away as police officers."

Lord James then became the candidate for Edinburgh West, entering the Commons in 1974.

After Margaret Thatcher ousted Ted Heath as Tory leader in 1975, Lord James found his support for a Scottish Assembly was out of tune with the official line. When Labour put forward its first devolution scheme, he says: "Along with some 30 other Tory MPs, including Ted Heath, for the only time in my political life I defied a three-line whip and abstained."

His relations with Mrs T survived and he even persuaded her to interrupt a dinner so she could vote in favour of Edinburgh's controversial Western Relief Road. The road – which would have linked the West Approach Road with the M8, bypassing Corstorphine, Gorgie and Dalry – was opposed by Labour, so Lord James wrote to every Tory MP, appealing to them to vote for the bill.

MPs from the north-west of England said they could not be there because Mrs Thatcher was due to address them, but Lord James contacted the Prime Minister's parliamentary aide.

"When the vote came, I was one of the tellers and I was delighted and not a little amused to see Margaret Thatcher entering the Aye lobby, followed obediently by about 30 north-west members."

Labour won the subsequent regional elections and scrapped the project.

Lord James held on to his seat in four general elections, but in 1994 he suddenly found himself barred from voting, speaking or even entering the Commons chamber. His uncle, Geordie Selkirk, had died and Lord James was heir to his hereditary peerage as the Earl of Selkirk – or so he thought.

John Major's government had a small majority and was facing a confidence vote over Europe. Lord James was reluctant to resign his Commons seat and risk the collapse of the government.

He was, however, able to disclaim his title and remain as an MP. But he still had to fight a legal battle with a cousin over the earldom to ensure his son could inherit the title when he died.

Lord James lost Edinburgh West in the Scottish Tory wipe-out of 1997, but returned first in the House of Lords and then in 1999 in the Scottish Parliament as a Lothians MSP. He says his first reaction on joining the Lords was: "They are all so old," but when he joined the Scottish Parliament he thought: "They are all so young."

Lord James says of his memoirs: "The motivation was to encourage young people to enter party politics, to be of public service, whatever their political affiliation – and in case my great grandchildren want to know what I did to justify my existence on the planet."

A CAREER IN THE SPOTLIGHT

James Douglas-Hamilton

Born: 31 July, 1942

Education: Eton; Balliol College, Oxford; Edinburgh University

Edinburgh councillor: 1972-74

Conservative MP, Edinburgh West: 1974-97

Scottish Office Minister: 1987-97

Life peer, Baron Selkirk of Douglas: 1997-

Conservative MSP, Lothians list: 1999-2007