This is a new and fascinating story. "HE could have been living the high life of a Scottish nobleman while young men died on the frontline during the Great War. But David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, whose family seat was in Fife, joined up as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He served amid the squalor of a Western Front casualty clearing centre, where surgeons worked under intense pressure in savage conditions. He volunteered for active service in 1915 aged 43, arriving in France just after the bloody battle of Neuve Chapelle, where 13,000 soldiers were mown down to gain a few yards. Lindsay had been an MP before succeeding to his title and had been instrumental in founding the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He spent 15 months working under enormous pressure within five miles of the static trenches, where men were killed or wounded daily. Lindsay could have easily traded the carnage of the casualty centre for a sumptuous palace in India when he turned down the job of viceroy. Later in the war, he became minister of agriculture in a coalition – the only private soldier to serve in the World War I government. Because of his lowly position, he had a contempt for staff officers and generals alike. A lifelong Conservative, he also despised the governing Liberals, particularly Winston Churchill. His fascinating story is told in a new book called Private Lord Crawford’s Great War Diaries." http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/diaries-lord-crawford--secret-2712249?fb_action_ids=10153478113820599&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
At the time, Winston Churchill was in disgrace. After losing his job as First Lord of the Admiralty, he was able to take command of the 6th Battalion Royal Scots. Before the war, Lindsay had been Tory chief whip in the Commons and resented Churchill’s defection to the Liberals. This tallies with some accounts of Churchill's time with the Royal Scots - he (Churchill that is) thought they loved and admired him - They (the troops) were less complimentary.
