Background
The son of Robert Bruce, at one time Tory Member of Parliament for Clackmannan, he was born in Kennet in that county and educated at Loretto, Eton and Oriel College, Oxford.
The son of Robert Bruce, at one time Tory Member of Parliament for Clackmannan, he was born in Kennet in that county and educated at Loretto, Eton and Oriel College, Oxford.
Oriel College.
He was Secretary for Scotland between 1895 and 1903. In 1876 Balfour was elected a Scottish representative peer. Six years later, he was made an Education Commissioner for Scotland, and in 1887 he entered Lord Salisbury"s administration as a Lord-in-Waiting.
The following year, Lord Balfour became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, a position he held until the Liberals returned to power in 1892, and for three years he chaired the London Water Supply Commission until his return to government as Secretary for Scotland in 1895.
Balfour was Governor of the Bank of Scotland from 1904–1921. Balfour was appointed Lord Rector of Edinburgh University (1896–1899), and elected Chancellor of Street Andrews University in 1900, a post he held until his death.
In 1916 he was appointed as chairman of the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy by Lloyd George and the economisers in the Cabinet in acknowledgement of his free trade credentials. In 1917 he was appointed convener of the Carnegie trust for the universities of Scotland.
In June 1901 he received the honorary degree Doctor of Laws (DLL) from the University of Glasgow, and later the same year he received the Freedom of the City of Glasgow for his services in facilitation legislation for the city.
Balfour married Lady Katherine Eliza, youngest daughter of the George Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen, in 1876. Lord Burleigh of Balfour died at Cadogan Square, London, in July 1921, aged 72. He was buried in Clackmannan.
Lady Balfour of Burleigh died in February 1931, aged 78.
Appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1901, Balfour resigned office two years later with the split that occurred in the Conservative and Unionist Party over Joseph Chamberlain"s campaign for tariff reform, a campaign which he opposed.
He became Lord Warden of the Stannaries in Cornwall and a member of the Council of the Prince of Wales in 1908.