Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane

Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, (; 30 July 1856 – 19 August 1928) was a Scottish lawyer, philosopher, influential Liberal and later Labour politician and statesman. He was Secretary of State for War between 1905 and 1912 during which time the "Haldane Reforms" of the British Army were implemented. As Secretary of State of War, he was instrumental in founding MI5, MI6, the Territorial Army, the British Expeditionary Force, and the Royal Flying Corps. Beyond his military contributions, Haldane was a significant figure in education, contributing to the founding of institutions such as Imperial College London and the London School of Economics. His efforts have left a lasting impact on both the UK's defence and educational landscapes.

As an intellectual he was fascinated with German thought. That led to his role in seeking detente with Germany in 1912 in the Haldane Mission. The mission was a failure and tensions with Berlin forced London to work more closely with Paris.

Raised to the peerage as Viscount Haldane in 1911, he was Lord Chancellor between 1912 and 1915, when he was forced to resign because of allegations of German sympathies. He later joined the Labour Party and again served as Lord Chancellor in 1924 in the first Labour administration. Apart from his legal and political careers, Haldane was an influential writer on philosophy, in recognition of which he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1914. Provided by Wikipedia