John William Crombie

[6] However, in an election which saw the Unionists confirmed in power, Crombie's constituency was one where the Liberal performance was said to be one of the strongest in Scotland [7] and he won with a majority of 1,556.

[5] Crombie served as Private Secretary to James Bryce, when he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1892–94) and President of the Board of Trade (1894–95).

[1] In 1896 Crombie was appointed to be a member of a Board of Agriculture Departmental committee to report into the working of laws relating to dogs.

[9] He was later appointed to a committee to inquire into the probable economic effect of a limit to the eight hours to the working day of coal miners.

[10] Usually described as a Radical or Gladstonian, Crombie was an orthodox free-trader, as his letter to the editor of The Times newspaper of 6 October 1903 demonstrated.

In the letter he attacked the proposals of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour with specific examples drawn from his experience as a woollen manufacturer and from other industries.

[15] In 1890, Crombie published a book of poetical, literary and folkloric sketches entitled Some Poets of the People in Foreign Lands (Eliot Stock, London, 1890 and 2nd edition, 1891).

[17] In 1886, he published an article in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland on the 'History of the Game of Hop Scotch' and the origins of its name.

Although he had a major country estate at Balgownie Lodge in Scotland, Crombie died at his London home in Onslow Square in Kensington on 22 March 1908, aged only 50 years.