Name George Barbour | Role Author | |
Books The Garment of the Living God: Studies in the Relations of Science and Religion, The Elder and His Work | ||
Dr George Freeland Barbour DPhil, JP (15 February 1882 – 18 November 1946), was a Scottish author, philosopher and Liberal Party politician.
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Background
He was a son of the Reverend Robert William Barbour of Bonskeid and Charlotte Rachel Fowler of Gastard, Wiltshire. He was educated at Morrison's Academy, Crieff and Edinburgh University. In 1905 he obtained a Master of Arts and in 1910 was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy. In 1919 he married Helen Victoria Polwarth. They had two sons and three daughters, one of which Caroline Victoria, married journalist Julian Haviland.
Career
In 1904 Barbour became Joint Honorary Secretary of the Scottish Temperance Legislation Board, a role he carried out until 1913. He was Liberal candidate for the West Perthshire division at the December 1910 General Election. This had always been a Unionist seat apart from 1906 when it went Liberal. The Unionists had regained it in January 1910 and held off the challenge from Barbour 11 months later;
After the election he continued his involvement as Chairman of West Perthshire Liberal Association. In 1913 he became a member of the Royal Commission on Housing for Scotland, serving for four years. In 1919 he started working for the newly created League of Nations Union. He worked for the Union for the next 20 years. In 1919 he was appointed to the Perthshire Education Authority and served on that body for 25 years. After a gap of 19 years and four general elections he was again Liberal candidate for Kinross and Western Perthshire at the 1929 General Election. The constituency had been fought on new boundaries in 1918 when a Liberal won. The Liberals won in 1922 but in 1923 the seat went Unionist. In 1924 there was no Liberal candidate. Barbour had been selected as prospective parliamentary candidate in 1925 so had spent time nursing the division. His hopes of regaining the seat were made harder by the presence of a Labour candidate who managed to poll enough votes to allow the Unionist to win;
He did not stand for parliament again. He served as a Justice of the peace. In 1942 he was elected as a Member of Perth and Kinross County Council, serving for three years, serving on the Education Committee. He was a Member of the British Council of Churches and the Provisional Committee of the World Council of Churches.
Land
He owned the Linn of Tummel, a 19-hectare (47-acre) woodland property at the confluence of the rivers Garry and Tummel, near Pitlochry in Perthshire, Scotland. In 1944 he donated the Linn to the National Trust for Scotland. He donated his ancestral home of Bonskeid to the Young Men's Christian Association to use as a holiday home.