Lieutenant Colonel Sir Martin Alexander Lindsay, 1st Baronet of Dowhill, (22 August 1905 – 5 May 1981) was a British Army officer, polar explorer, politician and author.
He first came to national attention in the 1930s, as a Polar explorer in Greenland. During the Second World War, Lindsay held a staff role in the Norwegian campaign, where he became sharply critical of the operation’s failures. He later commanded a battalion in Northwest Europe, was wounded in action, Mentioned in Despatches twice, and awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
Immediately after the war, he went into politics and served as a Member of Parliament for nearly two decades. In 1962, he was awarded a Baronetage of the United Kingdom, being created Baronet of Dowhill in the County of Kinross.
Early life Lindsay was born to a long-established Scottish noble family and could trace direct descent, as 22nd in line to Sir William Lindsay of Rossie, 1st of Dowhill, a younger son of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk the third son of Sir David Lindsay, 6th Lord of Crawford. Martin Lindsay was himself the son of an officer in Britain's Indian Army who became a lieutenant colonel in the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles.
Lindsay was educated at Wellington College and at the Royal Military College Sandhurst."Who Was Who", A & C Black.
Army officer In 1925, Lindsay passed out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Two years later, he was posted to Nigeria and seconded to the 4th Battalion, the Nigeria Regiment. During this period, Lindsay won Nigeria's Grand National horse race.
After his 13-month stint with the Arctic expedition he was posted with the 2nd Bat. of the Royal Scots Fusiliers to Shanghai.Lindsay, Martin; Snowed in with Greenland Eskimos; China Journal, Vol. 16 (1932), pp. 19–24
First expeditions At the end of his two years in Nigeria in 1929, Lindsay undertook his first expedition, travelling from West to East Africa through the Ituri Rainforest in what was then called the Belgian Congo.
In 1930 he was appointed Surveyor to the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to Greenland, led by Gino Watkins. Expedition members included John Rymill and Freddie Spencer Chapman but, as a seasoned Army officer, Lindsay brought a disciplined organisational and administrative experience to the team. Lindsay later wrote up his experiences in a book Those Greenland Days (1932), paying tribute to Watkins' team building. The success of this expedition resulted in Lindsay and the other key expedition members being awarded the Polar Medal, with the clasp Arctic 1930–1931.
Lindsay enjoyed writing about explorers and, in 1933, followed up his success with The Epic of Captain Scott, his tribute to the famous explorer.
British Trans-Greenland Expedition In 1934 Lindsay was the Leader of the British Trans-Greenland Expedition under the patronage of the Prince of Wales. The expedition was sponsored by several British government ministries and aimed to explore and map a 350-mile long stretch of Greenland which had not previously been visited but contained the highest mountains in the Arctic Circle. Andrew Croft was the photographer for the expedition; Lt. Daniel Godfrey was in charge of survey and navigation.
The expedition crossed Greenland from west to east, and succeeded in fixing the positions of many important features including Gunnbjørnsfjeld. On the return journey the team headed south-west to Amassalik (now Tasiilaq) and on their journey discovered the extent of the Crown Prince Frederick Range (Kronprins Frederik Bjerge). Lindsay's expedition set a new world record after sledging for 1,050 miles (700 of which were through unexplored territory).
When all three returned safe and well, the expedition was regarded as an unqualified success, with The Times devoting a leader to it. The Times observed that "for daring and success [it] will rank high in the long annals of polar exploration"."The Greenland Expedition" (Leader), The Times, 13 October 1934. Lindsay had also written his report of the expedition for The Times and in 1935 wrote a book, Sledge, based on these reports. His fame extended beyond Britain and in April 1935 he was awarded the Alexandre de la Roquette Gold Medal by the French Geographical Society for his leadership."French Honour For British Explorer", The Times, 12 April 1935.
Civilian interlude In 1936, Lindsay left the army. He had married a distant cousin, Joyce Lindsay, in 1932 and they had a young family.
He moved to Lincolnshire where he was adopted as Conservative Party candidate for Brigg in June 1936."Mr. M. Lindsay to stand for Parliament", The Times, 9 June 1936. The constituency was held by Labour with a majority of only 203, and Lindsay began to attend social events in the constituency in an attempt to build up his chances of election.
He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire from 1938.
Second World War Lindsay wrote to The Times in April 1939 to support the introduction of conscription, based on his knowledge of the people of Brigg, stating that "so widespread is the determination of the British working man to 'Stop Hitler' that I do not believe there would be any opposition of importance".The Times, 25 April 1939.
Norwegian Campaign Lindsay returned to soldiering 1939, on the outbreak of the Second World War and served in a staff appointment during the Norwegian campaign. It was just three years since he had left the Army. In the spring of 1940 Britain decided to send troops to Northern Norway and Lindsay, with his experience of organising Polar expeditions, was an obvious choice to help advise on the particular problems the climate and terrain could bring to military operations.
However he became deeply critical of the poorly organised and ill-prepared operation in Norway to the extent that he feared that Britain would lose the war unless important lessons were learned following the debacle. Lindsay was one of the first soldiers to reach London following the evacuation from Norway, and presented his candid account of the operation to members of His Majesty's Opposition such as Clement Attlee and Herbert Morrison. This report became known as the "Lindsay Memorandum" in which Lindsay recalled an operation riven with the utmost incompetence, which he contended went to the very top of the government. The evidence presented by Lindsay was used by Attlee in order to bring about a vote of censure against the leadership of the then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, which ultimately led to Chamberlain's resignation, the appointment of Winston Churchill and the creation of a coalition government. Lindsay's contribution to the Norwegian Campaign resulted in him being Mentioned in Despatches.
Subsequent operations
On 14 April 1943 Lindsay was appointed CO of the newly formed 9 Para. Taking over from the recently promoted Brigadier James Hill, Lindsay played a central role in training 9 Para ready for Operation Tonga. Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay held this position until 1 April 1944.
In July 1944 Lindsay was appointed second-in-command of the 1st Battalion The Gordon Highlanders, in the 51st Highland Division. He commanded the battalion in sixteen operations between July 1944 and May 1945, being again Mentioned in Despatches, wounded in action, and receiving the Distinguished Service Order.Lt-Col Martin Lindsay, "So Few Got Through", London: Collins, 1946/Arrow Books (pbk; nd)/Leo Cooper, 2000, . He ended the war as a lieutenant colonel.
As was already his pattern, he wrote up his experiences in So Few Got Through: The Diary of an Infantry Officer in 1946; this was followed by a recap of his Arctic exploits, Three Got Through: Memoirs of an Arctic Explorer the following year.
Member of Parliament Lindsay's political career had been put on hold during the war – he had resigned his Brigg candidacy – instead in June 1945, just after the war in Europe had ended, he was adopted as Conservative candidate for Solihull, a newly created constituency which was expected to be safely Conservative."Election Candidates", The Times, 7 June 1945. His Labour opponent was the future cabinet minister Roy Jenkins, but Lindsay beat him by 5,049.
His maiden speech on 7 November 1945 dwelt on the problems of an international arms race between the United States and Soviet Union. Lindsay supported giving details of the atomic bomb to the latter "if she would agree to cooperate and take part in a mutual system of controls and inspections"."Parliament", The Times, 8 November 1945.
Early in his parliamentary career he concentrated on conditions for servicemen and ex-servicemen; in May 1946 he encouraged discharged officers to take up posts with the Colonial Office and with the Control Commission in occupied enemy countries."Parliament", The Times, 4 May 1946. A week later he condemned the Germany Control Commission's publication "The British Zone in Germany" as "a miserable little rag" because it was a pale ghost of the Manchester Guardian."Parliament", The Times, 11 May 1946. He was a firm opponent of nationalisation of the steel industry, which took place.
Lindsay spoke in October 1946 in support of German prisoners of war being allowed to remain in Britain and being allowed British citizenship, because of the shortage of skilled labour."Parliament", The Times, 18 October 1946.
Although a generally moderate MP, Lindsay could be roused to anger. In April 1949, a criticism of the Conservative Party by Minister of Food John Strachey prompted Lindsay, recalling Strachey's association with Oswald Mosley, to ask "Is it in order for an ex-member of the Fascist Party ...", the rest of the sentence being drowned out by angry shouts from Labour MPs."Parliament", The Times, 6 April 1949. The exchange between the two caused a major row involving many Members of Parliament."Commons Debate Ends in Angry Scenes", The Times, 6 April 1949.
Journalism Outside Parliament, Lindsay also contributed his journalistic skill, writing the text for a book about the House of Commons published in the "Britain in Pictures" series in 1947. In 1948, with debates on the House of Lords starting as a result of the Labour government's Parliament Bill, he wrote Shall We Reform 'the Lords'?, which discussed the options which might be taken.
He was Chairman of the West Midlands Area of Conservative and Unionist Associations from 1949 to 1952.
During the 1950 general election, Lindsay made a speech at Wellington, Shropshire in which he prophesied that Aneurin Bevan would soon take over as prime minister after Clement Attlee retired."Election speeches", The Times, 16 February 1950.
During the close Parliament of 1950–51, Lindsay played his part in harrying the Labour government. In November 1950 he won a spot in the ballot for Private Member's Bills and introduced a freedom of information Bill to give the press a statutory right to report the proceedings of public bodies."Private Members' Bills", The Times, 17 November 1950. Lindsay's Bill ran out of time; he also supported the bill, that became statute, introduced by Labour MP Eirene White reforming the divorce laws."Divorce Bill Carried", The Times, 10 March 1951. Early in 1951 he called on Belgium not to put General von Falkenhausen, the former German military governor, on trial for war crimes. Lindsay argued that Belgium had the least oppressive occupation of any nation."Trial of General Von Falkenhausen", The Times, 1 February 1951.
Churchill's second ministry Lindsay was not offered any government posts when Churchill returned to office in 1951.