of commerce, George William Daniels, who paid the earl and countess the following compliment, "You know, it's worth five centuries of breeding to breed two like those". He was a keen book collector, particularly of Victorian erotica, and bequeathed in his will over 100 volumes to the British Museum, which were subsequently placed in the Private Case. Political career Crawford was elected Member of Parliament for Chorley in 1895 and served as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1903 to 1905 under Arthur Balfour. After the Conservatives went into opposition in 1905 he was Chief Conservative Whip in the House of Commons between 1911 and 1913. The latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords (in virtue of his junior title of Baron Wigan, which was in the Peerage of the United Kingdom). In July 1916 Crawford was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed President of the Board of Agriculture, with a seat in the cabinet, in the coalition government of H. H. Asquith. When David Lloyd George became Prime Minister in December 1916, Crawford became Lord Privy Seal. In January 1919 Lloyd George appointed him Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but removed him from the cabinet. He was made First Commissioner of Works in April 1921, and in April of the following year he was also made Minister of Transport, and restored to the cabinet. He retained these two posts until the coalition government fell in October 1922. Later career Crawford was Chancellor of the University of Manchester between 1923 and 1940, a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire. He served as President of the Committee commissioning the Survey of London which documented the capital's principal buildings and public art. Family Lord Balcarres married, at St Margaret's, Westminster, on 25 January 1900, Constance Lilian Pelly, daughter of Sir Henry Pelly, 3rd Baronet. They had eight children, two sons and six daughters: David Alexander Robert Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford (20 November 1900 - 13 December 1975) Lady Margaret Cynthia Lindsay (27 June 1902 - 1997) Lady Cynthia Anne Lindsay (21 June 1904 - 5 January 1997) Hon James Louis Lindsay (16 December 1906 - 27 August 1997), Conservative Member of Parliament for Devon North from 1955 to 1959. Lady Elizabeth Patricia Lindsay (15 September 1908 - 4 February 1937) Lady