British politician
David Euan Wallace, MC PC (20 April 1892 – 9 February 1941) was a British Conservative politician who was an ally of Neville Chamberlain and briefly served as Minister of Transport during World War II.
Early life.
Wallace was born on 20 April 1892. He was the son of John Wallace, of Glassingall, Dunblane, Perthshire. His paternal grandparents were David Wallace, an ironmaster, and Janet (née Weir) Wallace. His aunt, Edith Wallace, was the wife of Maj. Robert Dunbar Sinclair-Wemyss.
He was educated at Harrow before attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Career.
In 1911, Wallace joined the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards Reserve, gaining the rank of Captain, serving as adjutant from 1915 to 1918. He was decorated with the award of the Military Cross (MC) after being wounded four times during the Great War.
After the War, he became assistant Military Attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. He acted as a special Commissioner for the North-East coast and acted as "aide-de-camp" to the Governor General of Canada in 1920.
Political career.
He was first elected to the House of Commons at Member of Parliament (MP) for Rugby from 1922 to 1923, then represented Hornsey from 1924 until his death in 1941 (when he was considered one of the richest members of the House of Commons). He served as Assistant Government Whip from 1928 to 1929; Junior Lord of the Treasury in 1929 and 1931; Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1931 to 1934; Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1935 to 1935; Secretary for Overseas Trade from 1935 to 1937; Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1937 to 1938; Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1938 to 1939. On 21 April 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appointed Wallace the Minister of Transport.
Wallace was invested as a Privy Counsellor by King Edward VIII in June 1936, along with Lt.-Col. David John Colville (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland) and, his former brother-in-law, Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr (Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education).
Personal life.
Wallace was twice married and the father of five sons, four of whom died while serving in the military. On 26 November 1913 Wallace married Lady (Myra) Idina Sackville, daughter of The 8th Earl De La Warr and Lady Muriel Agnes Brassey. Lady Idina designed Kildonan House in Barrhill, South Ayrshire with the architect James Miller in homage to her childhood home, but they separated before it was completed. Before the marriage ended in divorce in 1919, they were the parents of two sons:
On 10 May 1920, he was married to Barbara Lutyens (1898–1981), the daughter of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (a daughter of Edith Villiers and The 1st Earl of Lytton, the Viceroy of India and British Ambassador to France). Together, they were the parents of three sons:
He inherited a coal and iron fortune estimated at more than £2,000,000.
After undergoing a serious operation before Christmas 1940, Wallace died on 9 February 1941. His widow, who married Herbert Agar (the American journalist who was editor of the "Louisville Courier-Journal") in 1945, lived another forty years before her death in 1981.
Descendants.
Through his eldest son David, he was a grandfather of two: Laura Jacqueline Wallace (b. 1941), who married Dominic Paul Morland (a son of Sir Oscar Charles Morland GBE KCMG, of Pickering, Yorkshire and Alice Lindley) in 1963, they divorced and she married, secondly, Keith Fitchett, in 2003; and Cary Davina Wallace (b. 1942), who married David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford.
References.
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