Alexander Cairncross

Who was Alexander Cairncross?

Sir Alexander Kirkland "Alec" Cairncross KCMG FBA FRSE was a British economist. He was the brother of the spy John Cairncross and father of journalist Frances Cairncross and public health engineer and epidemiologist Sandy Cairncross.

He was born in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, the seventh of eight children of an ironmonger, and went to Hamilton Academy, then won a scholarship to Glasgow University, where he specialised in economics. He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge.

After taking a first in the Economic Tripos, he became a lecturer in economics, under the considerable influence of John Maynard Keynes.

During World War II, most of his work was in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, where he rose to become Director of Programmes. In 1946 he served briefly on the staff of The Economist, and subsequently became adviser to the Board of Trade. He was seconded to be the economic adviser to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation in Paris in 1949. and he left to become Professor of Applied Economics at his old university, Glasgow, in 1951.