James Crawford

Caricature of Lord Crawford by Leslie Ward

According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:

Crawford, Lord, James Ludovic Lindsay, 1847-1913, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres. A prominent British astronomer and man of note. He was interested in occultism and had been in touch with APS and HPB. He was for a time a councilor of the TS. KH speaks very highly of him (ML, pp. 26-7). He was reputed to have one of the largest private libraries in England. At the time of his death, he had in his possession some letters from HPB and other interesting material. These were retrieved by Mrs. Doris Groves, of the TS in England, for the Society. See ML index; D p. 635; HPB II: 554.

In a letter to Colonel Olcott, HPB wrote,

Last night Lord Crawford passed with me the whole evening and I had a long talk with him, about his name being on the Council. It is all right because he is a perfect gentleman with a gentleman's heart. I read him the passage concerning him from our letter and he tells me that as soon as he has received your letter -- some two years ago -- he answered by the same post that you were welcome to keep his name on the Council, because he would not think of leaving us when the Society was in trouble and the whole world against it.

This one is a gentleman with a noble soul and not a snob as we have so many. So now it is settled; you may keep his name till doom's day, for I told him the good it did.

Lord Lindsay was mentioned in these letters:

• Mahatma Letter No. 10
• Mahatma Letter No. 12
• Mahatma Letter No. 15
• Mahatma Letter No. 103b
• Blavatsky letter to Mary Hollis-Billing dated June 28, 1879
• Blavatsky Letter to Charles Carleton Massey dated May-June 1884