Background
Dalrymple was the son of John Dalrymple, 11th Earl of Stair.
Dalrymple was the son of John Dalrymple, 11th Earl of Stair.
Dalrymple was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Scots Guards on 16 February 1898, and promoted to lieutenant on 11 October 1899. He fought in the Second Boer War, where he took part in the march to occupy the Boer capitals Bloemfontein (March 1900) and Pretoria (June 1900), and was present at the successive Battles of Diamond Hill (11-12 June 1900) and Bergendal (21-27 August 1900). Following the end of hostilities in early June 1902, he left Cape Town on board the Steamship Orotava, and arrived at Southampton the next month.
He later fought in the First World War, where he was captured by the Germans.
Lord Stair married Violet Evelyn Harford, a descendant maternally of Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse, on 20 October 1904. Lady Stair"s father Frederick Henry Harford was grandson of Henry Harford, last colonial proprietor of Maryland and illegitimate son of Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore.
Her mother Florence Parsons was granddaughter paternally of Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse and maternally of the 2nd Baron Duncombe. Thus the former Violet Harford, despite the lack of a "handle" (courtesy title), was well-connected to the peerage, and her family was probably still quite wealthy.
They had six children, of whom all but one married and left issue and descendants:
Lady Jean Margaret Florence Dalrymple (1905–2001), later Lady Jean Rankin DCVO, a Lady in Waiting to the Queen Mother.
John Aymer Dalrymple, 13th Earl of Stair (1906–1996)
Lady Marion Violet "Snowy" Dalrymple (1 February 1908 – 1995)
Captain The Honorary Hew North Dalrymple (b 27 April 1910 – 24 May 2012) - father of Robert Hew Dalrymple (b 10 November 1946)
Honorary Andrew William Henry Dalrymple (1914–1945), killed in a plane crash
Major Colin James Dalrymple (b 1920).
28th United Kingdom Parliament. 29th United Kingdom Parliament. 30th United Kingdom Parliament]
Lord Dalrymple sat as Member of Parliament for Wigtownshire from 1906 to 1914, when he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords.