OBITUARY

Earl of Crawford and Balcarres obituary

Empathetic Conservative MP who became a minister under Edward Heath and later served as lord chamberlain to the Queen Mother
The earl was regarded as a liberal Conservative
The earl was regarded as a liberal Conservative
REX FEATURES

In February 1966 Lord Balniel, as he was then, a Conservative MP who chaired the National Association for Mental Health, asked a question in the House of Commons: would the minister for health set up an inquiry into Scientology, a movement that was, he believed, exploiting the fears and anxieties of the mentally unstable.

L Ron Hubbard, the movement’s American founder, was furious. He ordered hundreds of followers to join the association known as the NAMH (now Mind) shortly before its annual meeting so they could vote his stooges on to its governing council and take over the charity.

Hubbard’s ploy failed, but he also employed a private detective to try to dig up dirt on Balniel to discredit him. “Every time we have investigated