On This Day
15 June 1970
Death of Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, Liberal Party Leader 1935-1945
Son of a Scottish father and an American mother, Sinclair served on the western front during World War I and was Winston Churchill’s second-in-command and later his private secretary when Churchill returned to the cabinet in 1919. He was elected as Liberal MP Liberal MP for Caithness and Sutherland in 1922 and during his parliamentary career held cabinet office twice, as Secretary of State for Scotland in the National Government of 1931 and as Secretary of State for Air during the wartime coalition of 1940-45. Sinclair narrowly lost his seat in the 1945 election coming third but only 61 votes behind the Tory winner. After an attempt to return to the Commons in 1950, a series of strokes forced Sinclair to retire from active politics.