Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Lindsay, James Ludovic
LINDSAY, JAMES LUDOVIC, twenty-sixth Earl of Crawford and ninth Earl of Balcarres (1847–1913), astronomer, collector, and bibliophile, the only son of Alexander William Crawford Lindsay [q.v.], twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford and eighth Earl of Balcarres, by his wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General James Lindsay, of Balcarres, was born at St. Germain-en-Laye 28 July 1847. He was educated at Eton, and after a short residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, entered the Grenadier Guards, but resigned his commission after being elected (1874) M.P. for Wigan, a seat which he held until he succeeded to his father's earldom in 1880. Attracted to astronomy, he organized a station at Cadiz in 1870 for observing the eclipse of the sun, on which occasion he rendered valuable assistance to an expedition sent by the British government. In 1872 he erected an observatory, equipped with the newest telescopes, at Dunecht, near Aberdeen, and made acquaintance with Mr. (afterwards Sir David) Gill [q.v.] who became a distinguished assistant in its management. In 1874 Lord Lindsay, with Mr. Gill and Dr. Ralph Copeland [q.v.], proceeded to Mauritius to observe the transit of Venus. Equipped with instruments at great expense by the twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford, they were enabled, though the observation was marred by clouds, to report valuable data for the determination of longitudes and the method of establishing the solar parallax. The results are contained in the Dunecht Observatory Publications—a series long regarded as an important source of astronomical information. In 1888 Lord Crawford presented to the nation all his telescopes, instruments, and astronomical library, for the purpose of establishing an improved observatory at Edinburgh. Dr. Ralph Copeland, who had directed the observatory at Dunecht since 1876, was appointed in 1889 astronomer royal for Scotland, and the new Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill was opened by Lord Crawford in 1896.
During the rest of his life Lord Crawford made large collections of proclamations, broadsides, documents of the French Revolution, and postage stamps; he also collected a philatelic library which he bequeathed to the British Museum. He was an enthusiastic bibliophile, and added greatly to the splendid library inherited from his father. The manuscripts are now in the possession of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, with the exception of a series of English and Oriental manuscripts illustrating the progress of handwriting, which he presented to the free library of Wigan. He issued a number of catalogues and handlists, and also collations and notes of the rarer books in a valuable series of volumes entitled Bibliotheca Lindesiana (1883–1913). Though not a profound mathematician, he had considerable mechanical skill and took special interest in the development of electrical engineering, acting as chief British commissioner at the electrical exhibition in Paris in 1881. He rendered other service by scientific exploration in his yacht Valhalla.
Lord Crawford was elected president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1878 and 1879, fellow of the Royal Society (1878), honorary associate of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (1883), and a trustee of the British Museum (1885). He also presided over the Royal Photographic Society, the Philatelic Society, and the Camden Society. He was invested knight of the Thistle in 1896 and held the volunteer decoration. In January 1913, at a meeting of the trustees of the British Museum, Lord Crawford was taken seriously ill. He died the following day, 31 January, at 2 Cavendish Square, and was buried at the old chapel of Balcarres House, Fife. He married in 1869 Emily Florence, second daughter of Colonel the Hon. Edward Bootle Wilbraham, and by her had issue, a daughter and six sons. He was succeeded as twenty-seventh Earl by his eldest son, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (born 1871).
[Obituary notices in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. lxxiv; Faraday House Journal, February 1913; Nature, 13 February 1913 (by Sir David Gill); London Philatelist, February and March 1913; Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, February 1913; G. Forbes, David Gill, Man and Astronomer, 1916; M. J. Nicoll, Three Voyages of a Naturalist, 1908; New Scots Peerage.]