the National Government headed by Ramsay MacDonald. He was chairman of the Indian States inquiry committee and travelled to India in 1932 and was made a member of the joint select committee whose proposals resulted in the Government of India Act 1935. He declined the governorship of Bombay. He invited Joachim von Ribbentrop to meet with Stanley Baldwin for the first time in Westminster to discuss Hitler's ideas about equality in armaments. He remained Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when Baldwin became Prime Minister for the third time in 1935, although he was never a member of the cabinet. The latter year he was also made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO). He stepped from the government and the House of Commons after Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in May 1937. The following June he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Davidson, of Little Gaddesden in the County of Hertford. He was succeeded as MP by his wife, Frances, Viscountess Davidson (see below). Later career, 1937–1970 Despite being only 48 at the time of his elevation to the peerage, Davidson took no further active part in political life. He remained involved with Ashridge and his business affairs. During the Second World War he was with the Ministry of Information between 1940 and 1941 and made an official tour of South America in 1942. This was followed in 1943 with his foundation of Canning House, an important centre for Latin American culture and education. Blake writes of Davidson: "A man of much charm and geniality, bespectacled and ruddy complexioned, Davidson could be very tough. He was essentially one who operated behind the scenes rather than on the front of the stage. A streak of Scottish puritanism put him emphatically on the side of the 'respectable'. He had no sympathy with the buccaneers – Lloyd George, Churchill, Birkenhead, Beaverbrook. He was deeply devoted to Baldwin who owed a great debt to his advice, companionship, and support." Family Lord Davidson married Frances Joan "Mimi" Dickinson, daughter of Sir Willoughby Dickinson, later Lord Dickinson of Painswick, in 1919. They had two sons and two daughters (Margaret, Jean, Andrew and Malcolm). Lady Davidson remained MP for Hemel Hempstead until 1959, and was created a life peer as Baroness Northchurch in 1963. Lord and Lady Davidson thereby became one of the few couples who both held titles in their own