John Forbes-Sempill, 18th Lord Sempill

Who was John Forbes-Sempill, 18th Lord Sempill?

John Forbes-Sempill, 18th Lord Sempill was a Scottish peer, the 18th Lord Sempill and 9th Baronet of Craigievar.

He was the son of William Forbes-Sempill, 17th Lord Sempill, and Frances Emily Abercromby, the daughter of Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet, and succeeded to the titles on the death of his father in 1905, prior to which he was known by the courtesy title "Master of Sempill". In addition to three sisters, he was the eldest of four brothers, all of whom served in the military; Douglas, a Major in the Seaforth Highlanders, was killed on the North-West Frontier of India in 1908, whilst Robert was killed in the Battle of the Somme serving with the Gordon Highlanders. The youngest of the four, Arthur, was in the Royal Navy, and survived the Battle of Jutland. A fifth brother, William, died in infancy.

After studying at Eton, he joined the 3rd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders in 1883, then transferred to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1885. After service in the Sudan, he transferred to the Army Service Corps in 1894, then transferred into the Black Watch in 1894. He served with the Lovat Scouts and then the Black Watch in the South African War. He would later go on to command the 8th Battalion Black Watch in the First World War, where he was severely wounded at the Battle of Loos and mentioned in despatches. He later claimed to have been the first man from Kitchener's Army to land in France; he had leapt ashore before the troopship had tied up at the dock. He later served in the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer, and was later the chairman of the Aberdeenshire Territorial Army Association, the Honorary Colonel of the 5th Battalion Gordon Highlanders - his brother Robert's battalion - and an aide-de-camp to King George V.