John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland, GCSI, GCIE, PC (7 July 1860 – 11 January 1925) was a British politician in the Scottish Liberal Party, a soldier, peer, administrator and Privy Councillor who served as the Secretary of Scotland from 1905 to 1912 and the Governor of Madras from 1912 to 1919.

During his tenure as Governor of Madras, Pentland became popular in India for the interest he showed in the indigenous tradition and culture.

As noted by Veronica Strong-Boag "As much as anyone in the new Cabinet after the 1905 election, he embodied the new liberalism of state intervention on the side of the weak.

His advocacy of the Scottish Education Act of 1908, which provided for improved teacher training and school facilities and meals for students, very much followed the spirit of Lord Aberdeen’s practices on his own estates.

[3] Sinclair joined the Liberal Party in the 1880s and contested elections to the House of Commons from the Ayr Burghs in Scotland on the promise of Home Rule for Ireland, but lost.

[citation needed] In January 1889 he was elected to the first London County Council as a Progressive councillor representing Finsbury East.

[6] In 1892, Sinclair was elected a Liberal Member of Parliament for Dunbartonshire, a seat he held until 1895, and returned to the Commons representing Forfarshire from 1897 to 1909.

He was appointed a Privy Councillor on 11 December 1905[8] and was created Baron Pentland, of Lyth in the County of Caithness on 15 February 1909.

[9] On 12 July 1904 he married Lady Marjorie Adeline Gordon, elder daughter of his former patron the 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair.

Although he commuted Slater's death penalty to life imprisonment he did not investigate concerns, raised by many including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that the Glasgow Police, James Neil Hart (the Procurator Fiscal) and the Lord Advocate Ure conspired to protect the then influential Charteris and Birrell families of Glasgow.

[citation needed] In February 1912, Pentland retired as the Secretary for Scotland and was succeeded by Thomas McKinnon Wood.

In June 1911, Arthur Lawley had commissioned the construction of a railway bridge connecting Pamban Island with the Indian mainland.

The existing railway line ended with the town of Ramanathapuram and it was felt that its extension to Pamban island would boost trade and tourism.

The construction of the 2.06 km long cantilever railway bridge was undertaken by the German engineer Scherzer and completed in 2 years at a cost of Rs.

[17] In 1914, Pentland invited the Scottish botanist and architect Patrick Geddes to conduct an exhibition on town-planning in Madras city.

The Cities and Town Planning Exhibition opened in the senate of the Madras University on 17 January 1915 and was inaugurated by the Governor who also gave an introductory speech.

He persuaded Pentland to appoint a town planning advisor and suggested the name of H. V. Lancaster who was a vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

[24] Factories manufacturing soap, ink, adhesives, paper-making, oil-pressing, food processing and decoration of groundnuts were established all over the province.

The battle lasted fifteen minutes and Emden sailed away towards Pondicherry when the coastal defenses of Madras started to retaliate.

[23] He appeared captivated by the Hindu shrine at Rameswaram which he visited during the inauguration of Pamban Bridge and recommended to the Viceroy to establish a committee to conduct a detailed undersea exploration at the site.

And then Adam’s Bridge- a reef of sunken islands' beckons us across the Palk Straits to Ceylon, where civilization flourished more than 2000 years ago.

I would earnestly request you to direct the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake an extensive and intensive survey of Rameshwaram and its beautiful environs, particularly with reference to the historic and primordial Adam’s Bridge Pentland was one of the classical British Indian politicians who shared their views on appeasing Indians and that words were more important than actions.

In 1917, he is believed to have told Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India:We ought to play with them (Indians), humour them in politics and discuss with them industrial development, education and social reform; but there is no necessity for doing anything[29]Lord Pentland is also remembered for having assisted the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan make his journey to England.