Art historian of Italian Renaissance sculpture, reformer of the South Kensington Museum, and politician. Lindsay was the son of James Ludovic Lindsay, twenty-sixth earl of Crawford and ninth earl of Balcarres (1847-1913) and Emily Florence (Bootle-Wilbraham) Lindsay (1848-1934). His father was an astronomer and bibliophile, a landed nobleman from Haigh, Wigan, Lancashire, and chairman of the family firm, the Wigan Coal and Iron Company. His grandfather, David Alexander Edward Lindsay, wrote books of art history as well.