Harry Primrose , 6th Earl of Rosebery ( Albert Edward ) Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose , 6th Earl of Rosebery KT , PC ( 8 January 1882 – 31 May 1974 ) , styled Lord Dalmeny until 1929 , was a British politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945 . Background and education . His parents were Archibald Primrose , 5th Earl of Rosebery , Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1894 to 1895 and Hannah Primrose , Countess of Rosebery , a member of the Rothschild family . He was the brother of Neil Primrose and the writer Lady Sybil Grant . He attended Eton and the Royal Military College , Sandhurst . Military career . Rosebery joined the British Army and became a Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards . During the First World War , he served in France from 1914 - 1917 as Camp Commandant and ADC to General Allenby and subsequently in Palestine as Allenby ' s Military Secretary . His brother Neil Primrose was killed in Palestine . Cricket career . As Lord Dalmeny he was a prominent cricketer and he played two first - class matches for Middlesex in 1902 . He served as captain of Surrey County Cricket Club ( 1905 – 1907 ) . He played in 102 first - class matches in all , scoring 3551 runs at an average of 22 . 47 , including 2 centuries with a highest score of 138 . He was a hitter of notable power and though never consistent he could on occasions “ knock the best bowling all over the field ” , as when he hit 58 against Hallam on a difficult wicket at The Oval in 1905 . Rosebery was notable in horseracing circles for winning the Epsom Derby with Blue Peter and Ocean Swell , and winning most other classic British flat races , with horses bred at his Mentmore and Crafton Studs . Political career . He commenced his political career by being elected Liberal Member of Parliament for the Scottish seat of Edinburghshire . This was a county , better known by its modern name of Midlothian , which was an area where the Roseberys had long been prominent landowners . Dalmeny was one of almost 400 Liberals returned in the great landslide victory of the 1906 election . He retired from the House of Commons in January 1910 . At the time of his death he was the last survivor of the 1906 Liberal MPs . Rosebery entered the House of Lords on the death of his father in 1929 . The same year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Midlothian , a post he held until 1964 . In February 1941 , during the Second World War , he was appointed Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence in Scotland . When the wartime coalition government broke up in 1945 , Winston Churchill formed a caretaker administration to hold office until the 1945 general election . The new government was composed of members of the Conservative Party and the small groups which had allied with it in the National governments in office 1931 - 1940 . Amongst these allies was the National Liberal Party to which Rosebery belonged . One of the most unexpected appointments Churchill made was to install Rosebery as a member of the Privy Council and Secretary of State for Scotland . Both men had served together in the Liberal Parliamentary Party in the 1906 - 1910 Parliament . The caretaker Ministry was in office May to July 1945 . Rosebery was President of the National Liberal Party 1945 - 1957 . He was also appointed Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland in 1952 . Family . In 1909 , he married Dorothy Alice Margaret Augusta Grosvenor , daughter of Lord Henry George Grosvenor . They had a son , Archie Primrose , Lord Dalmeny ( 1910 – 1931 ) , and a daughter , Lady Helen Dorothy Primrose ( 1913 - 1998 ) . With the end of the war came also Rosebery ' s divorce in 1919 . He eventually re - married in 1924 , to Eva Isabel Marion Bruce , daughter of the 2nd Baron Aberdare of Duffryn . Their only child , Neil Archibald Primrose , was born in 1929 . In 1931 , Rosebery ' s eldest son Archibald died at the age of 21 from blood poisoning , while at Oxford .