Erskine was one of the nine children of Captain David Holland Erskine (1828–1869), British Consul in Madeira, by his marriage on 23 December 1856 to Augusta Jane Stoddart (died 1896). His father was the second son of Sir David Erskine, 1st Baronet (1792–1841), of Cambo, Fife, and Erskine later became heir-presumptive to the baronetcy of his cousin Sir Thomas Erskine, 5th Baronet. He was educated at
Wellington College and abroad. In 1898, he married Cicely Grace, a daughter of the Rev. Charles Penrose Quicke, Rector of
Ashbrittle,
Somerset, and they had four sons and one daughter. A member of a
Rural District Council in
Sussex, Erskine became Chairman of the Committee of the
Clan Erskine Society and also a
Justice of the Peace for Sussex. He was, at the time, living in the division at 7,
Eccleston Square, and was avowedly a Conservative. His majority was 1,888, with a 57 per cent share of the votes, whereas at the
1918 general election the previous member for Westminster St George's, the Conservative and Unionist
Sir Walter Long, had gained more than 90 per cent of the votes.
The Times newspaper gave much of the credit for the result to the support Erskine had received from its popular rival the
Daily Mirror. Using the campaign slogan "Economy without exception", Erskine attacked "the orgy of extravagance which has marked the last few years", extravagance not only by the government but also by the
London County Council, while his opponent, Jessel, attempted to portray himself as the true anti-waste candidate. Speaking after the declaration of the result, Erskine said: At the
1922 election Erskine held his Westminster seat as an
Independent Conservative with an increased majority, this time with both Conservative and
Liberal candidates standing against him. In
1923 and
1924 he became the official representative of the Conservatives and was elected unopposed. In London, Erskine was a member of the
Junior Carlton Club and later of the
Carlton Club. He died on 5 November 1944, and at the time of his death was living at 82-83 Eccleston Square,
Westminster. ==Notes==