Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker

The Right Honourable
Lord Lindsay of Birker
CBE
The Right Honourable Lord Lindsay of Birker CBE
Principal of Keele University
	In office; 1949–1952
Succeeded by	Sir John Lennard-Jones
Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
	In office; 1935–1938
Preceded by	Francis John Lys
Succeeded by	Sir John Lennard-Jones
Personal details
Born	Alexander Dunlop Lindsay; 14 May 1879; Glasgow, Scotland
Died	18 March 1952 (aged 72)
Party	Popular Front
Alma mater	University of Glasgow ; University College, Oxford

Alexander Dunlop Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker, CBE (14 May 1879 – 18 March 1952),^[1] known as Sandie Lindsay, was a Scottish academic and peer.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Lindsay worked at a number of universities, beginning as a fellow in moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and as an assistant lecturer at Victoria University of Manchester. He then moved to Balliol College, Oxford where he had been elected a fellow in 1906. He served in the British Army during the First World War. He was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1922 to 1924, before returning to Balliol College. He also served as the Vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1935 to 1938. Having retired from Oxford in 1949, he became the first principal of the 'University College of North Staffordshire', which became Keele University.

Lindsay had unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons in the 1938 Oxford by-election, as an independent candidate opposed to the Munich Agreement. He was, however, made a baron on 13 November 1945, and thereby sat as a peer in the House of Lords.

Early life

Lindsay was born in Glasgow on 14 May 1879, the son of Anna and Thomas Martin Lindsay. He was educated from 1887 at the Glasgow Academy, then at the University of Glasgow, where he gained a Master of Arts degree in 1899, and finally at University College, Oxford, where he took a Double First in 1902.^[5]

Career

In 1903 Lindsay won the 'Shaw Fellowship' in moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh,^[6] as had his father, who was the first recipient of the award.^[6] In the October of the following year he obntained a post as an assistant lecturer in philosophy at the Victoria University of Manchester. However, by the following March he had applied for a tutorial fellowship in Balliol College, Oxford,^[7] which was finally offered to him in the following September.^[8] Consequently in 1906 Lindsay returned to Balliol College as a fellow and tutor in philosophy.^[9] In 1910 he was appointed as 'Jowett Lecturer in Philosophy', which included the chief responsibility for the teaching of philosophy in the college.^[10] From the latter part of the First World War, 1917, and afterwards to 1919, he acted as 'Deputy Controller of Labour' in France, during which he became a Lieutenant-colonel; he received a CBE (Military) and he was mentioned in dispatches.^[9]

From 1922 to 1924, Lindsay was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. From 1924 to 1925, he was president of the Aristotelian Society. In 1924 he became master of Balliol College and became vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1935 to 1938. He worked with Lord Nuffield who in 1937 donated £900,000 to fund the creation of a postgraduate college, Nuffield College, Oxford.

At Oxford, Lindsay was a leading figure in the Adult Education Movement.^[11]

In 1938, Lindsay stood for Parliament in the Oxford by-election as an 'Independent Progressive' on the single issue of opposition to the Munich Agreement, with support from the Labour and Liberal parties as well as from many Conservatives including the future Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, and Edward Heath, and the President of the Oxford Union, Alan Wood, but lost to the official Conservative candidate, Quintin Hogg.

In 1949, upon his retirement from Balliol, Lindsay became the Founding Principal of the 'University College of North Staffordshire', which opened at Keele Hall in 1950.^[12] This unique institution - the first UK university of the 20th Century - tested many of Lindsay's educational principles and reflected the post-war idealism of its day. Known by many as the "Keele Experiment", many of the features of the new universities of the 1960s were tested at Keele.^[13] The University College became the University of Keele in 1962.

Personal life

Lindsay married Erica Violet Storr (1877 – 28 May 1962), daughter of Francis Storr, in 1907 and they had one daughter and two sons.^[9] He was elevated to the peerage on 13 November 1945 as Baron Lindsay of Birker, of Low Ground in the County of Cumberland. He was introduced to the House of Lords on 5 December 1945.^[14] He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Michael Francis Morris Lindsay.

Selected bibliography

Socratic Discourses with an Introduction by A. D. Lindsay (1910)
Berkeley's A New Theory of Vision and Other Select Philosophical Writings with an Introduction by A. D. Lindsay (1910)
The Philosophy of Bergson (1911)
Five Dialogues of Plato, bearing on Poetic Inspiration with an Introduction by A. D. Lindsay (1913)
Mill's Utilitarianism, Liberty & Representative Government with an Introduction by A. D. Lindsay (1914)
The Republic of Plato translated by A. D. Lindsay (1923)
Karl Marx's Capital an introductory essay (1925)
Kant, Ernest Benn Limited / Oxford University Press, 1934. 1970 edition, Folcroft Press. ASIN: B0006C6R8G
The Two Moralities (1940)

Notes

↑ A. D. Lindsay on the Spartacus educational website, accessed 3 July 2011
↑ "The State The Church The Community By Master of Balliol | Ebay".
↑ "BookButler - Prijsvergelijking van boeken".
↑ "Balliol Archives - Masters". archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk.
↑ Scott 1971, p. 35.
1 2 Scott 1971, p. 5.
↑ Scott 1971, p. 40.
↑ Scott 1971, p. 41.
1 2 3 Elliott 1934, p. 291.
↑ Scott 1971, p. 51.
↑ Keppel 1928.
↑ Scott 1971, pp. 324.
↑ Gallie 1960.
↑ "LORD LINDSAY OF BIRKER". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 138. United Kingdom: House of Lords. 5 December 1945. col. 333–.

References

Elliott, Ivo, ed. (1934). The Ballioll College Register (Second 1833-1933 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 April 2026.
Gallie, W.B. (1960). A New University: A. D. Lindsay and the Keele Experiment. London: Chatto & Windus.
Keppel, Frederick Paul (1928). "The Adult Education Movement". Current History. 27 (4): 513–515. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
Scott, Drusilla (1971). A. D. Lindsay A biography. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0 631 13980 X. Retrieved 23 April 2026. With chapters by Tom Lindsay and Dorothy Emmet.

External links

Alexander Dunlop Lindsay Archived 5 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
Taylor, Miles (2021). "Keele: Post war-pioneer". In Pellew, Jill; Taylor, Miles (eds.). Utopian universities. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-3501-3863-6. Retrieved 13 March 2026.
Works by Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker at Project Gutenberg
Works by Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Academic offices

Preceded by

Arthur Lionel Smith

Master of Balliol College, Oxford
1924–1949

Succeeded by

David Lindsay Keir

Preceded by

Francis John Lys

Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
1935–1938

Succeeded by

George Stuart Gordon

Preceded by

New Creation

Principal, University College of North Staffordshire
(now Keele University)
1949–1952

Succeeded by

Sir John Lennard-Jones

Peerage of the United Kingdom

New creation

Baron Lindsay of Birker
1945–1952

Succeeded by

Michael Lindsay

[Spart-1] A. D. Lindsay on the Spartacus educational website, accessed 3 July 2011

[2] "The State The Church The Community By Master of Balliol | Ebay".

[3] "BookButler - Prijsvergelijking van boeken".

[4] "Balliol Archives - Masters". archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk.

[FOOTNOTEScott197135-5] Scott 1971, p. 35.

[FOOTNOTEScott19715-6] 1 2 Scott 1971, p. 5.

[FOOTNOTEScott197140-7] Scott 1971, p. 40.

[FOOTNOTEScott197141-8] Scott 1971, p. 41.

[FOOTNOTEElliott1934291-9] 1 2 3 Elliott 1934, p. 291.

[FOOTNOTEScott197151-10] Scott 1971, p. 51.

[FOOTNOTEKeppel1928-11] Keppel 1928.

[FOOTNOTEScott1971324-12] Scott 1971, pp. 324.

[FOOTNOTEGallie1960-13] Gallie 1960.

[14] "LORD LINDSAY OF BIRKER". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 138. United Kingdom: House of Lords. 5 December 1945. col. 333–.

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21st century	2004 John Hood 2009 Andrew D. Hamilton 2016 Louise Richardson 2023 Irene Tracey

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Early life

Career

Personal life

Selected bibliography

Notes

References

External links