Brigadier-General William Douglas (1688–1747), of Kirkness, Kinross, was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1722.
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Early life
Descended from the Earls of Morton, William Douglas was the eldest son of Sir Robert Douglas of Kirkness by Jean, daughter of John Balfour, 3rd Lord Balfour of Burleigh, widow of George Oliphant of Gask, Perth.
Career
Douglas was elected Member of Parliament for Kinross-shire as a Whig at the 1715 general election. As an alternating seat, the constituency was not represented at the 1722 general election. No votes of his are recorded, nor did he stand again.
First commissioned in 1709, Captain Douglas joined Croft's Light Dragoons from which, in 1720, he was appointed to the Coldstream Guards.
He served with distinction in the War of the Austrian Succession, and was given the command of the 32nd Regiment of Foot soon after the Battle of Fontenoy (1745). The 32nd Regiment served briefly in England in 1745/46 in the army of the Duke of Cumberland and subsequently did 'good service' in Lancashire. They were employed in Scotland on the dispersal of the clans, remaining there but a short time, as they could ill be spared from Flanders.