John Dalrymple, 12th Earl of Stair

John James Hamilton Dalrymple, 12th Earl of Stair, (1 February 1879 – 4 November 1961), styled Viscount Dalrymple between 1903 and 1914, was a Scottish soldier and Conservative Party, later Unionist Party, politician.
Military and political career.
The son of John Dalrymple, 11th Earl of Stair, Dalrymple was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Scots Guards on 16 February 1898, and promoted to lieutenant on 11 October 1899. He fought in the Second Boer War, where he took part in the march to occupy the Boer capitals Bloemfontein (March 1900) and Pretoria (June 1900), and was present at the successive Battles of Diamond Hill (11-12 June 1900) and Bergendal (21-27 August 1900). 
Following the end of hostilities in early June 1902, he left Cape Town on board the "SS Orotava", and arrived at Southampton the next month. He later fought in the First World War. He was captured by the Germans during the Great Retreat in 1914 and remained a prisoner until 1917 when he was repatriated for medical reasons, due to degradation in his eyesight. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1919, and retired the same year at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Lord Dalrymple sat as Member of Parliament for Wigtownshire from 1906 to 1914, when he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords. Lord Stair was later Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1927 and 1928.
Family.
On 20 October 1904, Dalrymple married Violet Evelyn Harford, only daughter of Col. Frederick Henry Harford and Florence Helen Isabella Parsons, granddaughter of Lawrence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse, and great-granddaughter and heir of Henry Harford, last proprietary governor of Maryland. They had six children: