Basil Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava

Basil Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava DL (6 April 1909 – 25 March 1945), styled Earl of Ava from 1918 until 1930, was a Conservative politician and soldier.

Dufferin was the eldest child and only son of the 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. He was educated at Lockers Park School and Eton College, and then at Balliol College, Oxford. Following his father's succession to the marquessate in 1918 he was known as the Earl of Ava. At Eton he won the coveted Rosebery Prize, the highest possible distinction for a history pupil, when aged sixteen. At Oxford he was friends with among others Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford. He was also a contemporary and close friend of the poet John Betjeman. Betjeman wrote of his friend as "the dark, heavy-lidded companion" in his poem Brackenbury Scholar of Balliol.

After university Lord Dufferin pursued a career in politics. He made his maiden speech in the House of Lords in December 1931, aged just 22, during a debate on India. Only a few days later he was appointed to the Indian Franchise Committee which was to tour the country during its researches. After his return from India he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the 11th Marquess of Lothian, who was Under-Secretary of State for India, and then to the 3rd Viscount Halifax (later 1st Earl of Halifax) who was successively President of the Board of Education from 1932 to 1935, Secretary of State for War in 1935, and Lord Privy Seal from 1935 to 1937. Lord Dufferin was chairman of the Primrose League from 1932 to 1934, a Lord-in-Waiting to King George VI from 1936 to 1937 and was himself appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1937 before he resigned from the government in 1940 to join the British Army, refusing a post in the World War II coalition government of Winston Churchill.

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