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.
[5] 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, but lost to the official Conservative candidate, Quintin Hogg.
In 1949 Lindsay became the Founding Principal of the University College of North Staffordshire, which opened at Keele Hall in 1950.
This unique institution - the first UK University of the 20th Century - tested many of Lindsay's educational principles and reflected the postwar idealism of its day.
[5] He was elevated to the peerage on 13 November 1945 as Baron Lindsay of Birker, of Low Ground in the County of Cumberland.