• born Edinburgh, Scotland. July 30, 1856;
• brother of Elizabeth Haldane educated at Edinburgh University 1872;
• MA 1876? and Gottingen University (1874) and Dresden studied law in London;
• called to the bar in 1879.
• elected Liberal MP for East Lothian (Scotland) in 1885
• General Election [reelected until 1911]
• 1890 named Queen's Counsellor.
• 1895-98 Co-founder, London School of Economics (LSE). supporter of the Boer War
• 1902 Privy Councillor
• elected Gifford lecturer, University of St. Andrews, in the sessions 1902-1903; 1903-1904
• 1900 Free Church of Scotland case
• 1905 appointed Secretary of State for War [until 1912] (government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman)

While in office he was responsible for the creation of the General Staff (1906) and the Territorial Army (1907). Haldane "pursued and achieved possibly the most critical reforms of the British military system: the creation of an expeditionary force capable of quick movement to the Continent; the development of the Territorial Army as an effective and well-trained reserve body; and the institution of a General Staff"

• 1909 Chair, Royal Commission for University Education served in several offices as an advisor on educational policy honorary MA and Doctor of Philosophy, Gottingen
• 1911 appointed to the House of Lords; granted the title, Viscount Haldane of Cloan.
• 1912 appointed Lord Chancellor [until 1915] (appointed by Herbert Asquith, Liberal Government)
• 1915, unfairly accused of pro-German sympathies during the First World War; left Asquith's coalition government.
• 1915 Order of Merit member of the Fabian Society
• 1918 joined the Labour Party campaigned for the Labour Party in the 1923 General Election.
• 1924 appointed Lord Chancellor (by Ramsay MacDonald, first Labour Government)
• 1924-1928 leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords.
• died at Cloan, Scotland, August 19, 1928;
• buried at Gleneagles

http://www.stfx.ca/people/wsweet/Haldane.html site of St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada