| Intro | British historian | ||||
| Was |
Historian Writer Biographer |
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| From | United Kingdom | ||||
| Type |
Literature Science Social science |
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| Gender | male | ||||
| Birth | 25 June 1904 | ||||
| Death |
4 June 1976 (aged 71 years) |
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| Star sign | Cancer | ||||
| Family |
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| Education |
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John Patrick Douglas Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1904–4 June 1976) was a Scottish historian and writer noted for his biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and other works on Islamic history.
He was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He then became a journalist and writer.
At Oxford Balfour was part of the Railway Club, which included: Henry Yorke, Roy Harrod, Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath, David Plunket Greene, Edward Henry Charles James Fox-Strangways, 7th Earl of Ilchester, Brian Howard, Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse, John Sutro, Hugh Lygon, Harold Acton, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, Patrick Balfour, Mark Ogilvie-Grant, John Drury-Lowe.
During the Second World War he served with the Royal Air Force and from 1944-47 was First Secretary at the British Embassy at Cairo.
In 1938, he married Angela Mary Culme-Seymour (1912-2012), daughter of George Culme-Seymour and Janet (née Orr-Ewing) and former wife of the artist John Spencer-Churchill. Having been separated by World War II when Balfour was posted to Cairo, she started a five-year relationship with Major Robert Hewer-Hewitt by whom she had two sons, Mark and Johnny. Patrick and Angela were divorced in 1942.
Despite the brief marriage, Lord Kinross was homosexual; he had no issue and was succeeded by his brother David Andrew Balfour, 4th Baron Kinross.
He is buried in “Lords Row” in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh with all previous ancestors of the title Baron Kinross.
Books
- The Ruthless Innocent (1949) Supposedly based on the character of Angela Culme-Seymour
- The Orphaned Realm: Journeys in Cyprus (1951)
- Within the Taurus: A Journey in Asiatic Turkey (1954)
- Portrait of Greece with photographs in colour by Dimitri, Max Parrish: London (1956)
- Europa Minor: Journeys in Coastal Turkey (1956)
- The innocents at home (1959)
- Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation (London. 1964)
- Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey (New York. 1965)
- Portrait of Egypt (1966)
- Windsor Years: The Life of Edward, as Prince of Wales, King, and Duke of Windsor (1967)
- Between Two Seas: The Creation of the Suez Canal (1968)
- Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977) ISBN 0-688-08093-6
- Hagia Sophia :A History of Constantinople ISBN 9780882250151 (1979) Newsweek Book Division