Background
Home was born at Dalkeith House, Midlothian (the seat of his maternal grandfather), the son of Alexander Home, 10th Earl of Home and Lady Elizabeth Scott, the daughter of Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch.
Diplomat politician secretary of state peer
Home was born at Dalkeith House, Midlothian (the seat of his maternal grandfather), the son of Alexander Home, 10th Earl of Home and Lady Elizabeth Scott, the daughter of Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch.
He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.
He served as a representative peer for Scotland. During the premiership of the Duke of Wellington, he served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1828 to 1830. Home served as an Attaché at Street St. Petersburg from 1822 to 1823 and was with the Foreign Office from 1823 to 1827.
In 1828 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Duke of Wellington"s Tory administration, a post he held until 1830.
He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1841 and the following year he was elected a Scottish Representative peer, which he remained until 1874. In 1875 he was created Baron Douglas, of Douglas in the County of Lanark, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, a revival of the title held by his wife"s maternal grandfather (see below) and which entitled him and his descendants to an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
Lord Home married Honorary Lucy Elizabeth Montagu-Scott, daughter of Henry Montagu-Scott, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton and Honorary
Jane Margaret Douglas, the only daughter from the first marriage of Archibald Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas (a title which had become extinct in 1857).
He assumed the additional surname of Douglas on succeeding to the extensive Douglas and Angus estates. The couple had several children, including William Sholto Home (1842–1916), a Major-General in the British Army. The Countess of Home died in May 1877, aged 71.
Home"s great-grandson Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1964.
Were among the first to import Newfoundland dogs, or as they later became known, for use as gundogs. The first known photograph of the breed, taken in 1856, was of Lord Home"s dog "Nell".