Adrian Baillie


Sir Adrian William Maxwell Baillie, 6th Baronet DL was a British MP for two constituencies.

Early life

Baillie was born on 5 May 1898. He was the second son of Sir Robert Alexander Baillie, 4th Baronet and Isabel, Lady Baillie. Upon the death of his elder brother, Sir Gawaine Baillie, 5th Baronet, in 1914 during World War I, he became the 6th Baronet while still at Eton.
His maternal grandfather was David Elliot Wilkie and his paternal grandparents were Thomas Baillie and Elizabeth Baillie. His father's older brother, Sir George Baillie, 3rd Baronet, had inherited the baronetcy from his childless uncle, Sir William Baillie, 2nd Baronet, a Conservative Member of Parliament for Linlithgowshire. The first baronet was Sir William Baillie, who was created the Baillie baronet of Polkemmet in the County of Linlithgow in 1819. Among his extended family was aunts, Elizabeth Cavendish and Mary Price.
Baillie was educated at Eton College and at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Career

Sir Adrian served with the Royal Scots Greys in France in 1918, gaining the rank of Lieutenant. After the war ended, he entered the Diplomatic Service and served as the Second Secretary to the British Embassy at Washington from 1924 to 1928.

Political career

While back in the United Kingdom on leave during the summer of 1928, Sir Adrian agreed to contest the parliamentary constituency of Linlithgowshire at the request of Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow. He was defeated by Labour politician Manny Shinwell in 1929, but ran again in 1931 where he was elected as Unionist Party MP for Linlithgowshire, where his family home was situated.
Sir Adrian was defeated in his attempt at reelection in 1935 by George Mathers. After the death from influenza of Herbert Spender-Clay, he was then elected as Conservative MP for Tonbridge at a by-election in 1937, but stood down in 1945. Sir Adrian, reportedly "devoted himself to his constituents and to campaigning for improved conditions for agricultural workers."

Personal life

On 4 November 1931, at Holy Trinity Church in London, he was married to the former Olive Cecilia Paget, the eldest daughter of Englishman Almeric Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough and his American wife, Pauline Payne Paget of the prominent Whitney family. Olive, who was educated in France and served briefly as a wartime nurse, had been married, and divorced, twice before. With her first husband, the Hon. Charles John Frederick Winn, she was the mother of two daughters; Pauline Winn and Susan Winn before their divorce in 1925. With her second husband, Arthur Wilson Filmer, whom she married in 1925, she bought Leeds Castle in Kent, which she retained after their divorce in 1931. Together, Adrian and Olive were the parents of one child before their marriage also ended in divorce in 1944:
He was a friend of the actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and was involved in a car accident in Fairbanks car while en route to Palm Springs, California from Los Angeles in 1939.
Sir Adrian died on 8 January 1947. He was buried at Whitburn South Parish Churchyard at Whitburn at West Lothian, Scotland.

Descendants

Through his son Gawaine, he was the paternal grandfather of Liza Baillie and Sir Adrian Baillie, 8th Baronet.