Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Martin Alexander Lindsay, 1st Baronet, (22 August 1905 – 5 May 1981) was a British Army officer, polar explorer, politician and author.
He first came to national attention in the 1930s, as a Polar explorer in Greenland. His front-line service during the Second World War, during which he commanded a battalion and was decorated for bravery, further added to his reputation. Immediately after the war he went into politics and served as a Member of Parliament for nearly two decades. In 1962, he was awarded a Baronetage of the United Kingdom, being created Baronet of Dowhill in the County of Kinross.
Early life
Lindsay was born to a long-established Scottish noble family and could trace direct descent, as 22nd in line, to the Sir William Lindsay who was ennobled as Lord Lindsay of Crawford in 1398. Martin Lindsay was himself the son of an officer in Britain's Indian Army who became a lieutenant colonel in the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles.
Lindsay was educated at Wellington College and at the Royal Military College Sandhurst.
Army officer
In 1925, Lindsay passed out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Two years later, he was posted to Nigeria and seconded to the 4th Battalion, the Nigeria Regiment. During this period, Lindsay won Nigeria's Grand National horse race.
After his 13-month stint with the Arctic expedition he was posted with the 2nd Bat. of the Royal Scots Fusiliers to Shanghai.
First expeditions
At the end of his two years in Nigeria in 1929, Lindsay undertook his first expedition, travelling from West to East Africa through the Ituri Rainforest in what was then called the Belgian Congo.
In 1930 he was appointed Surveyor to the British Arctic Air Route Expedition to Greenland, led by Gino Watkins. Expedition members included John Rymill and Freddie Spencer Chapman but, as a seasoned Army officer, Lindsay brought a disciplined organisational and administrative experience to the team. Lindsay later wrote up his experiences in a book Those Greenland Days (1932), paying tribute to Watkins' team building. The success of this expedition resulted in Lindsay and the other key expedition members being awarded the Polar Medal, with the clasp Arctic 1930–1931.
Lindsay enjoyed writing about explorers and, in 1933, followed up his success with The Epic of Captain Scott, his tribute to the famous explorer.
British Trans-Greenland Expedition
In 1934 Lindsay was the Leader of the British Trans-Greenland Expedition under the patronage of the Prince of Wales. The expedition was sponsored by several British government ministries and aimed to explore and map a 350-mile long stretch of Greenland which had not previously been visited but contained the highest mountains in the Arctic Circle. Andrew Croft was the photographer for the expedition; Lt. Daniel Godfrey was in charge of survey and navigation.
The expedition crossed Greenland from west to east, and succeeded in fixing the positions of many important features including Gunnbjørnsfjeld. On the return journey the team headed south-west to Amassalik (now Tasiilaq) and on their journey discovered the extent of the Crown Prince Frederick Range (Kronprins Frederik Bjerge). Lindsay's expedition set a new world record after sledging for 1,050 miles (700 of which were through unexplored territory).
When all three returned safe and well, the expedition was regarded as an unqualified success, with The Times devoting a leader to it. The Times observed that "for daring and success [it] will rank high in the long annals of polar exploration". Lindsay had also written his report of the expedition for The Times and in 1935 wrote a book, Sledge, based on these reports. His fame extended beyond Britain and in April 1935 he was awarded the Alexandre de la Roquette Gold Medal by the French Geographical Society for his leadership.
Civilian interlude
In 1936, Lindsay left the army. He had married a distant cousin, Joyce Lindsay, in 1932 and they had a young family.
He moved to Lincolnshire where he was adopted as Conservative Party candidate for Brigg in June 1936. The constituency was held by Labour with a majority of only 203, and Lindsay began to attend social events in the constituency in an attempt to build up his chances of election.
He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire from 1938.