Harcourt Johnstone Harcourt Johnstone Harcourt Johnstone (19 May 1895 – 1 March 1945), nicknamed Crinks, was a British Liberal Party politician. Johnstone was born in London in 1895, the son of the Hon. Sir Alan Johnstone, a British diplomat, and his American wife Antoinette Pinchot. His nickname 'Crinks' is alleged to have derived from the wrinkled face he had as a baby. One of his ancestors was Sir William Vernon Harcourt (1827–1904) who was Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone. His paternal grandfather was the first Baron Derwent. Harcourt Johnstone was educated at Eton College and at
Third Gladstone ministry Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the third time. Sir William Vernon Harcourt became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Childers Home Secretary and future Prime Minister the Earl of Rosebery Foreign Secretary. Lord Selborne and Sir Henry James both rejected the Lord Chancellorship, a post, which, however, was accepted by Sir Farrer Herschell, who was ennobled as Baron Herschell. Former Foreign Secretary Lord Granville became Secretary of State for the Colonies, while another political veteran, Lord Kimberley, resumed the post of Secretary of State for India which he had held from 1882 to 1885. The influential Joseph Chamberlain was