In the short story The Kidnapped Prime Minister, Lord Estair was the Leader of the House of Commons. He and Bernard Dodge approached Hercule Poirot to seek his help to locate the Prime Minister David MacAdam who had disappeared. Lord Estair told Poirot that they had come to Poirot on the recommendation of the King of Belgium. At this remark, Poirot's hand shot up in a salute.
To be a lord and an MP, Estair must be either a peer of Ireland—unlike Scottish peers, Irish peers remained eligible for election to the British House of Commons after the Union—or a peer by courtesy: the heir-apparent to a senior peerage who is styled by one of his father’s secondary titles.
Portrayals[]
Lord Estair was played by Patrick Godfrey in the film adaptation of The Kidnapped Prime Minister in Series 2 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. He was with Sir Bernard Dodge and did much of the talking when briefing Poirot about the case at the Foreign Office.
In the NHK anime adaptation The Disappearance of the Prime Minister, Lord Estair is voiced by Hiroki Matsukata. Here Lord Estair is the Home Secretary. He is portrayed very differently from the original. In the original, he knew Poirot and held him in high regard. Here he does not know Poirot and is even surprised that he is Belgian. Unlike the original, Estair here takes a highly active part in the operation. He sails to Boulogne on the destroyer and is busy directing the search operations with the help of Captain Daniels and Major Norman. He is high-handed and arrogant and highly annoyed by Poirot's unconventional methods. Even after Poirot succeeds in the mission, he remains ungracious and never even offers a word of thanks. Instead, he merely warns him that the case is a secret and must be treated like it never happened.