Archibald Williamson, 1st Baron ForresPC (13 September 1860 – 29 October 1931), known as Sir Archibald Williamson, 1st Baronet, from 1909 to 1922, was a British businessman and Liberal Party politician.
He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Elginshire and Nairnshire from 1906 to 1918 and then for Moray and Nairn until June 1922.
He entered parliament in the aftermath of the 1906 Liberal landslide election, taking a seat from the Conservatives.
He was created a Baronet in 1909.[2] He sought re-election 4 years later at the General Election and was returned with a reduced majority.
He was Chairman of a number of Home Office, Board of Trade and parliamentary committees and was a member of the Mesopotamia Commission of Enquiry in 1916. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1918. For the 1918 General Election his constituency was abolished and a new constituency Moray and Nairn was created for which he was adopted by the Liberals as candidate. As a supporter of David Lloyd George and his Coalition Government, he was endorsed as their candidate. As no other candidate came forward, he was again returned unopposed. Williamson held junior ministerial office as Financial Secretary to the War Office from 1919 to 1921. In June 1922, before the next general election, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Forres, of Glenogil in the County of Forfar. His recommendation for a peerage during the Lloyd George honours scandal created a public uproar when it was revealed that his oil firm, Williamson, Balfour and Co, had been accused of trading with the enemy during the war.[4][5] He was defended by F. E. Smith, Lord Birkenhead.
^George Edward Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs, The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom: extant, extinct, or dormant, Volume 13, page 375 Editors: Vicary Gibbs, Baron Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis Howard de Walden; (The St. Catherine press, ltd.) 1940
^Gilbert, Martin (1975). "43: The Genoa Conference". The Stricken World 1916–1922. Winston S. Churchill. Vol. IV. London: William Heinemann Ltd. p. 787. ISBN0434130109.
^University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "Lady (Agnes) Freda Forres OBE". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 27 March 2020.