On his mother's side, he was descended from the goldsmith and silversmith Paul Storr; his cousins thus included Rev.
After Oxford, he became a lecturer at Yenching University in Beiping, China and American University in Washington, D.C.[3] Using his protected status as a foreign citizen, Lindsay began smuggling radio and medical supplies to the communists, who were resisting the Japanese occupation of China.
He needed a native speaker of Chinese, so he recruited his student, Hsiao Li, whom he married on 25 June 1941.
[4] Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindsay became a citizen of an enemy state and thus liable for arrest, but the pair managed to escape.
[6] Dissatisfied with his treatment at ANU, seven years later, Lord and Lady Lindsay moved to Washington, D.C., where he taught at the Far Eastern Program at American University until his retirement in 1975.