Malcolm Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness

The Right Honourable
Earl of Caithness
PC
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office
14 July 1990 – 15 April 1992
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
John Major
Preceded by The Lord Brabazon of Tara
Succeeded by Tristan Garel-Jones
Paymaster-General
In office
25 July 1989 – 14 July 1990
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Peter Brooke
Succeeded by Richard Ryder
Minister of State for Housing
In office
25 July 1988 – 25 July 1989
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by The Lord Waldegrave of North Hill
Succeeded by Michael Howard
Minister of State for Environment
In office
10 January 1988 – 25 July 1988
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by The Lord Belstead
Succeeded by Michael Howard
Minister of State for Home Affairs
In office
10 September 1986 – 10 January 1988
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Giles Shaw
Succeeded by The Earl Ferrers
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport
In office
2 September 1985 – 10 September 1986
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by David Mitchell
Succeeded by The Lord Brabazon of Tara
Lord-in-waiting
Government Whip
In office
8 May 1984 – 2 September 1985
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by The Lord Lucas of Chilworth
Succeeded by The Viscount Davidson
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
21 January 1970
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by Roderick Sinclair, 19th Earl of Caithness
Personal details
Born 3 November 1948
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Marlborough College
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester

Malcolm Ian Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness, PC (born 3 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords as one of the remaining hereditary peers. He is also 20th Lord Berriedale, 15th Baronet Sinclair, of Canisbay, Co. Caithness, Nova Scotia, and chief of Clan Sinclair. He is the Chief Executive of the Clan Sinclair Trust.

Education

Sinclair was educated at Blairmore School, Aberdeenshire (then Marlborough College), and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

House of Lords and political offices

Malcolm Sinclair served as a House of Lords government-whip under Margaret Thatcher from 1984 to 1985. He then moved to the Department of Transport as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, serving until 1986, the year when he became Minister of State at the Home Office. In 1988, he was once appointed Minister of State at the Department of Environment. In 1989, he became Paymaster-General and a Minister of State in the Treasury.[1]

In 1990, Sinclair was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign Office, and then, in 1992, back to the Department of Transport. He married Diana Caroline Coke (1953–1994) in 1975. He was made a privy counsellor in 1990.

With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Sinclair, along with most other hereditary peers, lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was, however, elected as one of the 90 representative peers designed under the provisions of the act to remain in the House of Lords. He has since blocked further reform of the Lords, tabling 'wrecking' amendments to a draft Bill to abolish by-elections for hereditary peers, proposed by Lord Grocott in 2018. [2]

Sinclair is an opponent of fractional-reserve banking.[3]

Sinclair was a trustee of Queen Elizabeth Castle of Mey Trust, from its inception in 1996 until 2016. In 1999, he helped found a heritage charity, the Clan Sinclair Trust, the aim of which is the preservation and conservation of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, near Wick in Caithness. He serves as chief executive and has been responsible for getting the castle listed by the World Monuments Fund in its Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World in 2002, the fundraising and overseeing the remedial works which has allowed the castle to be accessible and open to the public.

Personal life

In January 1994, Sinclair resigned from his post at the Ministry of Transport in the government following the suicide of his wife, Diana Caroline Coke.[4] In 2004, he married Leila C. Jenkins in Rosslyn Chapel, whom he'd met at Ascot,[5] and he filed for divorce a year later.[4]

His children are Lady Iona Alexandra Sinclair (b. 1978), and Alexander James Richard Sinclair, Lord Berriedale (b. 1981).

Clan Sinclair

There are Clan Sinclair associations in the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy and the USA.

Malcolm Sinclair has organized the first Clan Sinclair International Gathering in Caithness in 2000, and then again in 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012 (in Norway) and 2015.

In 2009, Sinclair, referring to the role of Clan Chiefs, said "I do not believe there is an obligation towards the clan in any formal sense. For many years I took no interest in the Clan because I was too busy earning a living and bringing up the family...If a chief can give the time, particularly to the Diaspora, then there are huge rewards for everyone and I would hope that most chiefs can do that."[6]

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Mosley, Charles (ed.) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, volume 1 (Wilmington, DE: Burke's Peerage, 2003) page 641.
  2. ↑ Garland, Jessica. "A handful of hereditary peers are trying to stifle reform – they are on the wrong side of history". Electoral Reform Society.
  3. ↑ House of Lords record, February 2009, Hansard archives
  4. 1 2 Sinclair, Robert (2013) The Sinclairs of Scotland, AuthorHouse, 12 June 2013, ISBN 978-1481795708
  5. ↑ Ward, Louise (15 November 2004). "Earl of Caithness marries American businesswoman". Edinburgh: The Scotsman. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
  6. ↑ Chief to Chief - Malcolm Sinclair, The Earl of Caithness, Jamie Sempill, 15 July 2009


Political offices
Preceded by
Peter Brooke		 Paymaster General
1989–1990		 Succeeded by
Richard Ryder
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
James Sinclair		 Earl of Caithness
1965–present		 Incumbent
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