Alexander
Dunlop (Sandy) Lindsay was born in Glasgow,
Scotland, on 14th May, 1879. Educated at Glasgow
University he obtained his first degree in classics in 1899. He
then won a scholarship to University College, and as well as getting
a double first was president of the student union.
Lindsay
taught philosophy at Glasgow University
(1902-1904), Edinburgh University (1904-09)
and at Balliol, Oxford.
Along with his friend, William Temple,
he became a tutor at the Workers' Educational Association.
During
the First World War Lindsay served in the British
Army and in 1917 was promoted to deputy controller of labour in
France.
After the
war Lindsay was professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University
before returning to Oxford University.
A socialist, Lindsay became a national
figure in 1926 when he joined with William
Temple in urging the government to seek a negotiated agreement
to the General Strike.
An educational
adviser to the Labour Party, Lindsay was
chairman of the National Council of Social Service. He was also involved
in setting up several unemployment clubs and was vice-chancellor of
Oxford University (1935-38).
Lindsay,
a strong opponent of appeasement,
he stood as the anti-Munich candidate in the by-election that took
place in Oxford in October, 1938. Although
defeated by the Conservative Party
candidate, Quintin Hogg, he reduced the
majority from 6,645 to 3,434.
On the
outbreak of the Second World War Lindsay became
chairman of the Joint Recruiting Board, with the task of allocating
conscientious objectors to work of national
importance other than military service. He also played an important
role in organizing education for the armed forces.
As well
as being a regular contributor to the Manchester
Guardian he wrote several books including The
Philosophy of Bergson (1911), The
Philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1913), The
Essentials of Democracy (1929), Kant
(1934), The Modern Democratic State
(1943) and Religion, Science and Society
in the Modern World (1943).
He was created 1st Baron
of Lindsay of Birker of Low Ground by Clement
Attlee on 13
November 1945.
Alexander
Dunlop Lindsay died
on 18th March, 1952. His son, Michael Lindsay, a specialist in Chinese
economics, succeeded to the title and became the 2nd Baron of Lindsay
of Birker.
Alexander
Dunlop Lindsay
(1)
A. D. Lindsay, speech at Cardiff (1928)
The great democratic commonwealth
of learning, which transcends division of class, religion, and nationality,
which takes the co-operation of all for granted, and which has worked
out a wonderful technique of co-operative thinking.
(2)
A.D. Lindsay, speech (18th October, 1938)
Along with men and women
of all parties I deplored the irresolution and tardiness of a Government
which never made clear to Germany where this country was prepared
to take a stand look with the deepest misgiving at the prospect before
us ... all of us passionately desire a lasting peace, but we want
a sense of security, a life worth living for ourselves and our children:
not a breathing space to prepare for the next war.
(3)
Edward
Heath, The Course of My Life
(1988)
At the time I went up,
Balliol's already formidable reputation was being further enhanced
by the then Master, A. D. Lindsay. 'Sandy' Lindsay had previously
been Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, a chair
once held by Adam Smith. There the comparison ended, for Lindsay was
a socialist whose Christian faith was an integral part of his political
philosophy. In 1926, two years after he became Master, he had caused
an uproar, both among the College parents and more widely in the University,
by supporting the General Strike; and, in 1931, he had entertained
Mahatma Gandhi for a fortnight in the Master's Lodge during the Indian
leader's visit to Britain.
Although Lindsay's own
principles were strongly social democratic, he was completely non-dogmatic
and non-doctrinaire both in argument and in deed. He believed that
democracy alone, and the freedom of expression it underpinned, could
give each individual the chance to live his or her own full life.
Lindsay had more influence on me at Oxford than anyone else. Ironically,
by hastening my intellectual development, this great socialist probably
strengthened my innate Conservatism: and the more I exposed my instinctive
political views to intellectual questioning, the more solid and rigorous
their foundations became.
(4)
Denis
Healey, The
Time of My Life (1989)
Lindsay was not an outstanding
thinker. His books display a decent Christian socialism but generate
no excitement. But, besides running Balliol well, he had a genius
for understanding the intellectual needs of his students. In that
sense he was a worthy successor to Jowett.
He was a tall, shambling,
bear of a man. Wisps of white hair floated round a large innocent
pink head. He lectured in a light, sing-song voice, twisting the ends
of his gown in front of him. As the first confessed socialist to head
a college in Oxford, he was regarded as a dangerous revolutionary
by many of his colleagues, particularly when he stood as the Popular
Front candidate in the 1938 by-election. Nowadays he would be regarded
as a left-wing liberal. Many years working for the WEA had given him
a devotion to the working class. John Betjeman puts it well:
While Sandy
Lindsay from his lodge looks down
Dreaming
of Adult Education where
The pottery
chimneys flare
On lost
potential firsts in some less favoured town.
It was this desire to
help the under-privileged which determined his socialism.
He did not want the proletariat to win the class war - on the contrary,
as he told us at his farewell dinner after the war, he wanted to spread
aristocratic values through the whole of the British people. Exceptionally
kind to anyone in need, he managed to find a place in the Senior Common
Room for several refugees, including the great Central European sociologist,
Karl Mannheim, the Russian psychologist of adolescence, lovetz-Tereschenko,
and the Hungarian economist. Tommy Balogh, who had
been working under Schacht in the Reichsbank and warned us not to
imagine that the
Nazis' economic policies would fail in their objectives.
By introducing me to the
Christian mystics, and through his own social commitment,
Lindsay had an influence on me more profound and lasting than
I imagined at the time.
(5)
The Picture Post (5th November,
1938)
Then there was the confusion
of policy. Both candidates were for: the League of Nations; re-armament;
peace; democracy; unity against war. At least, they said so. Underlying
everything was a simple unpolitical moral issue, whether or no we
had gained peace with honour. But barrister Hogg scored one of the
big laughs when he said :
"The issue in this
election is going to be very clear. I am standing for a definite policy.
Peace by negotiation. Mr. Lindsay is standing for no definite policy
that he can name. He stands for national division against national
unity. His policy is a policy of two left feet walking backward!"
But Lindsay, lemonade-loving
Presbyterian son of a Theology Professor, had a unique line of approach,
remote from the usual thumping. In his very first speech, he read
part of the lesson for the previous Sunday, to illustrate his argument.
It went across - for he was sincere. He got headlines when a man asked
him : "Now that our prayers have succeeded in bringing peace
from the Munich agreement, is it not ungrateful to doubt and to question
that peace?"
Lindsay answered like this:
"Suppose you had a child desperately ill. All night long you
pray without ceasing, and in the morning she seems better. You thank
God that your prayers have been answered. Then, later on it is discovered
that owing to some error in the doctor's treatment, she is going to
be disabled for the rest of her life. Would your gratitude to God
for saving your daughter's life prevent you from calling in a better
doctor who might restore your daughter to health? That is how I feel
about our present very precarious peace. I am sure that Mr. Chamberlain
did his best, but I know that it was also he who brought us very near
to war. I am sure that it is owing to his policy that we are now in
such a very dangerous situation. That is why I oppose him"
(6)
Christopher Hill, A. D. Lindsay
(1952)
His influence on students
between the two world war wars was incalculable, and time and time
again he gave a lead where few others in university circles did -
in attempting reconciliation during the general strike, in doing something
for the unemployed during the depression, in opposing Nazism earlier
than was fashionable, helping German refugees and taking a public
stand against Munich, in modernizing and democratizing Oxford, in
the Keele experiment. In all these ways his influence prepared for
the Welfare State, if not the classless society.
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