David Gilmour (historian)

For other people named David Gilmour, see David Gilmour (disambiguation).

The Honourable Sir David Gilmour Bt FRSL
Born	(1952-11-14) 14 November 1952 (age 72)
Education	Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation	Writer
Spouse	Sarah Bradstock ​ (m. 1975)​
Children	4
Father	Ian Gilmour
Relatives	Oliver Gilmour (brother) Andrew Gilmour (brother) Walter Montagu-Douglas-Scott (grandfather)

The Honourable Sir David Robert Gilmour, 4th Baronet, FRSL (born 14 November 1952) is a British writer and historian. The son of the Conservative politician Ian Gilmour, he is the author of numerous historical works, including biographies Curzon: Imperial Statesman , of Lord Curzon (winner of the Duff Cooper Prize), and The Long Recessional , of Rudyard Kipling (winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography).^{[ citation needed ]}

Biography

Sir David Gilmour is the eldest son of Ian Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar, 3rd Baronet, and Lady Caroline Margaret Montagu-Douglas-Scott, the youngest daughter of the 8th Duke of Buccleuch. Princess Margaret was his sponsor at his christening.^{[ citation needed ]} He became the 4th Baronet on the death of his father in 2007. He is a first cousin of Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch, one of the largest private landowners in Scotland, and Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland.^{[ citation needed ]}

Gilmour was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL), ^[1] a former research fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, and a former senior research associate of Balliol College, Oxford.^{[ citation needed ]}

He has also reviewed for publications such as the London Review of Books , the Financial Times , Corriere della Sera , the Times Literary Supplement , The Spectator , the Independent on Sunday , and the New York Review of Books . ^[2]

Personal life

He married Sarah Anne Bradstock, the only daughter of Michael Hilary George Bradstock on 27 September 1975. They have four children:

• Rachel Ann Caroline Gilmour (21 December 1977)
• Alexander Ian Michael Gilmour (19 February 1980)
• Katharine Victoria Mary Gilmour (1984)
• Laura Elizabeth Rose Gilmour (1985)

Works

• Dispossessed: The Ordeal of the Palestinians 1917–1980 , (1980)
• Lebanon: The Fractured Country, (1983)
• The Transformation of Spain: from Franco to the Constitutional Monarchy , ^[3] (1985)
• The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , (1988, new edition by Eland published in 2007)
• The Hungry Generations, (1991)
• Cities of Spain , (1992)
• Curzon: Imperial Statesman (1994) Duff Cooper Prize, shortlisted for Whitbread Prize, Saltire Prize and Marsh Biography Award
• The French and their Revolution (ed), (1988)
• Paris & Elsewhere (ed), (1998)
• The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (2002) (Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2003)
• The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj (2005)
• The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples (2011), ^[4]
• The British in India: A Social History of the Raj (2018)

See also

• List of Old Etonians born in the 20th century#1950s

References

1. "Gilmour, Sir David". Royal Society of Literature. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
2. Gilmour, David (1 December 2012). "The Last Leopard: A life of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa". Eland Publishing. Retrieved 30 January 2019– via Amazon.
3. Maxwell, Kenneth (29 December 1985). "Startling Normality". The New York Times . Retrieved 30 January 2019.
4. David Gilmour (13 November 2012). The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples. ISBN   978-0374533601.

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ian Gilmour	Baronet (of Liberton and Craigmillar) 2007–present	Incumbent