Douglas, Francis, Baron, 1889-1980

British journalist, solicitor, politician, and colonial administrator. Douglas was a partner at Douglas & Company, solicitors. He was also a journalist. He was mayor of Battersea (1922-1923), a member of the Public Works Load Board (1936-1946), and the Railway Assessment Committee (1938-1946). Douglas sat in parliament (Labour) for Battersea North from 1940 to 1945, during which time he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education (1940-1945) and the same to the Home Secretary (1945-1946). He served as Governor of Malta from July 10, 1946, to September 16, 1949. Douglas was elevated to Baron in 1950, and was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. He published several works on land value rating, including Agriculture and Land Value Taxation (1930), Land-Value Rating: Theory and Practice (1936), Rating and Taxation in the Housing Scene (1942), and Social Science Manual: Guide to the Study of Henry George's 'Progress and Poverty' (1937). A revised edition of his book Land-Value Rating was published in 1961. He married Minnie Findlay Smith (died 1969), and later to Adela la Crox-Baudains. He died on March 30, 1980.