“ Alexander Reid, of Newcastle, he came of Liberal and Nonconformist stock, though in later years, and indeed even before the war, he had come to regard modern Liberalism as incompatible with the Gladstonian tradition of respect for individual liberty. ”

“ At the request of the eighth Duke of Marlborough he arranged and catalogued the State and family MSS. at Blenheim and drew up a report, 1889-90, which remains in manuscript, and in 1896 to 1900 he was occupied in forming a historical library at Blenheim to take the place of the old Sunderland library. The only published result of his researches was is book on the first Duke and Sarah Duchess of Marlborough from the Blenheim archives, which appeared in 1914. He was a director of the British Equitable Assurance Company and of the Kelani Valley Rubber Produce Company. ”