James Eric Drummond was born 17 August 1876. He became the 7th Earl of Perth (he was half-brother to the 6th Earl) and during his lifetime was a peer, diplomat and the first General Secretary of the League of Nations. He died on 15 December 1951. James Drummond was born in North Yorkshire and educated at Eton. In 1900 he was employed by the Foreign Office and by 1906 was private secretary to Lord Edmund Petty-FitzMaurice, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Subsequently he worked with Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ( as a prĂ©cis writer) – 1908 and 1910-11.
When the League of Nations was founded in 1919, Drummond was appointed its General Secretary; he stayed in post until 1933. After that date, Drummond became the British ambassador to Italy. After elevation to the feudal position of 7th Earl of Perth in 1937 (his half-brother having passed away), James Drummond took up his non-elected position in the British Parliament (House of Lords) as a Scottish Representative Peer. During the Second World War, he worked within the Ministry of Information as Chief Advisor on Foreign Affairs. From 1947 until his death in 1951 he was deputy leader of the Liberal Party.