Schomberg Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian

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Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian (2 December 1833 – 17 January 1900), was a British diplomat and Conservative politician who was usually known simply as Lothian. He became marquess in 1870 after his elder brother died without children.

Education and early life
He was the second son of John Kerr, 7th Marquess of Lothian, and Lady Cecil Kerr. He attended Glenalmond College, then Eton, and New College, Oxford, but did not graduate. He joined the Diplomatic Service and worked as an attaché and secretary in several cities.

Diplomatic career
Lothian served in Lisbon and Tehran (1854), Baghdad (1855), and Athens (1857). He was second secretary in Frankfurt (1862), Madrid (1865), and Vienna (1865).

Political career
In 1870 he inherited the family title and took his seat in the House of Lords. He was sworn into the Privy Council in 1886. From 11 March 1887 to 11 August 1892, he served as Secretary for Scotland and Vice-President of the Scottish Education Department under Prime Minister the Marquess of Salisbury. He was not a cabinet minister, but he led the Scotland Office during that period.

Other roles and honours
Lothian held several important Scottish offices. He was Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland from 1874 until his death and keeper of the Great Seal while Secretary for Scotland. In 1878 he was made a Knight of the Thistle, and in 1882 he received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh. He was Rector of the University of Edinburgh from 1887 to 1890 and a trustee of the Board of Manufactures in Scotland. He also led cultural and geographic societies, serving as President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1876–1890) and of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (1894–1898). He was a Knight of Grace of the Order of Saint John.

Military and local roles
From 1878 to 1889, he was Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the 3rd (Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia) Battalion, Royal Scots, a unit his father and grandfather had led. He later became Honorary Colonel of that battalion.

Family
In 1865 he married Lady Victoria Alexandrina Montagu Douglas Scott, daughter of the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. They had nine children: three sons and six daughters. The eldest son, Walter Kerr, Earl of Ancram (1867–1892), died unmarried in Australia in 1892. The second son, Lord Schomberg Kerr (1869–1877), died in childhood. The third son, Robert, survived and became the next Marquess of Lothian. The Marchioness Victoria died in 1938.

Death
Schomberg Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian, died in London on 17 January 1900, aged 66. He was buried at Newbattle, with a memorial in the Kerr family vault at Jedburgh Abbey.