John Sinclair was educated in Thurso and at Eton College. Thurso joined the Savoy Group as a management trainee in 1972 and following this worked for many years in the hospitality industry. He was a manager at the Lancaster Hotel in Paris and founding the hotel at Cliveden before becoming CEO of Granfel Holdings, owners of East Sussex National Golf Course from 1992 to 1995. Finally from 1995 until his election to parliament in 2001 he was CEO of the Champneys Group. During his time in this job he featured in the TV documentaryTrouble at the Top – Shape up with Lord Thurso. Lord Thurso comes from a family of Liberal parliamentarians. The former constituency of Caithness and Sutherland had been held by his grandfather, Archibald Sinclair, from 1922 until 1945. Archibald Sinclair was the 1st Viscount Thurso and a Liberal Party leader. Thurso has been married to Marion for 26 years and they have a daughter and two sons. The family live at Thurso, Caithness. Thurso holds the Presidency of The Tourism Society and the Academy of Food and Wine Service. He is a Fellow of Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality and served as its Patron for six years, until June 2003. He was President of the British International Spa Association, a Trustee of the Clan Sinclair Trust, and Patron of the Bluebell Railway 50th Anniversary Appeal. In that capacity, on 24 April 2009, at the railway's Horsted Keynes station he carried out the ceremonial renaming of the Battle of Britain class locomotive named after his grandfather, Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air during that battle. On 7 March 2016, it was announced that Lord Thurso would become the chair of VisitScotland. In August 2017, he was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Caithness.
Political career
Following his father's death in 1995, he took his seat in the House of Lords as the 3rd Viscount Thurso where he became spokesman on Tourism and later Food Matters. Thurso spoke many times in the House of Lords in favour of Lords reform. His automatic right as a hereditary peer to sit in the House of Lords was abolished in 1999, and he did not attempt to remain in that capacity. At the 2001 general election, he was elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. He served as Liberal Democrat Shadow Scotland Secretary under Charles Kennedy, but was sacked by Sir Menzies Campbell. He has publicly gone against party policy by declaring his support for nuclear power, and his criticism of 24-hour drinking and wind power. Lord Thurso was sworn of the Privy Council in 2014. Thurso lost his Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross at the 2015 general election to Paul Monaghan of the Scottish National Party. However, Lord Thurso had a good result in comparison with many Liberal Democrat candidates. Only four Scottish Liberal Democrat candidates were closer to winning their seats, including Alistair Carmichael; who was the only Liberal Democrat candidate to retain his seat at that year's general election. Following the election, Lord Thurso became a board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. In April 2016, Thurso won a by-election to a vacancy in the House of Lords following the death of Lord Avebury. He won the support of all of the three members who were eligible to vote.
