I AM sure that I, along with many others, will have greatly enjoyed the retelling of the story of the Scottish Covenant and “King” John MacCormick, (Back in the Day: The lessons we can learn from ‘King’ John, December 24), and as these late forties events disappear more into history and indeed may not be well known to many of the younger independence generations, I wonder if I can add a little more meat to the bones of that time.
READ MORE: Back in the Day: The lessons we can learn from ‘King’ John
Early in 1950, February 23, saw the second General Election after the end of the Second World War. My notations of the complete results of that far away contest might well interest National readers.
Things were very different then – the results for the constituencies with island populations, Argyll, Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland could be delayed if the sea crossings were being unkind to the officials involved, and it was possible for the last result not to be announced until the Monday following a Thursday election. There were 71 Scottish constituencies; 32 listed as burghs (which in those days the down south people in charge insisted on spelling “boroughs”), while the remaining 39 were listed as counties. The candidates were also sometimes different – Labour could be just that or could be known as Labour Co-Operative. The “Unionist” side were generally known as Conservatives, but another faction existed which were known as “National Liberals”. This latter designation was also found in some areas of England. They were of course all just “Tories”.
When the counting was all over the final score was: Labour 37, Conservative/Unionist 31, Liberal 2, Independent Liberal 1. Notable newcomer at this time was the late Joe Grimond, taking the Orkney & Shetland seat for the Liberals which they hold to this day. This also saw the defeat of the last Communist member of parliament when Willie Gallagher lost West Fife. Captain J McLeod retained his seat of Ross and Cromarty with a majority of 4391 – I suspect he had previously sat as a National Liberal (Tory).
Three candidates stood as Scottish Nationalists; between them they totalled 9714 votes, with D Stewart getting 4118 in Perth and East Perthshire, Dr McIntyre had 3898 in Motherwell, with R Curran collecting 1698 votes in Stirling and Falkirk. Six other candidates stood under various designations ranging from Independent Scottish Nationalist, through various Home Rule variations to W Maxwell-Hynd who stood in West Lothian under the banner of “Scottish Self Government”, and was the best of the rest with 1039 votes. The six managed a total of 3593 votes. We have come quite a long way since then, here’s to the next step on the way.
George M Mitchell
Dunblane
I READ with great interest Hamish MacPherson’s piece on John MacCormick. At the time of the Stone event, I was at college in Dumfriesshire, so had no awareness at all of these events.
I am a native of Dundee, and left there in 1965 to take a job in Peterhead, where I joined the SNP in 1966. In Hamish’s comment about the return of the Stone, he used the phrase “well some version of it” which chimed with my experience. In the seventies I was Chairman of the District Association of the SNP in Edinburgh. In one year “The Gathering of the Clans” took place in Edinburgh. The association was keen to mount a display during The Gathering and someone had seen a newspaper report that there was a copy of the Stone in a Church of Scotland in Dundee. It was agreed that we establish contact to see if we could borrow it. It was also agreed that I would do the needful.
The next Saturday I went down to see the minister. This was an unannounced visit, but he greeted me cordially. When I asked him if we could borrow his copy he stated that he did not have a copy, but the original stone! This took me aback somewhat, but he explained that he had been given the stone by Bertie Gray, the stonemason who had repaired it. Bertie Gray was a Progressive Baillie in Glasgow (not so much of an SNP in those days). He was friendly with John MacCormick, and knew all the circumstances of the repatriation. The stone had broken when Ian Hamilton had put it in the car; Ian Hamilton had left the broken bit in England and recovered it later. The ideal place to hide a stone was in a stoneyard. The police knew that Ian Hamilton had been involved but could not find him. He was hiding out in Jimmy Halliday’s flat. Jimmy was at Glasgow University with Ian Hamilton and had been asked to join the event. He declined but said that he regretted not going up to his dying day (Halliday went on to become Chairman of the SNP from 1956-60). The Minister, John Mackay Nimmo, said that Bertie Gray had asked him to keep the Stone and hand it over to the first meeting of an independent Scottish Parliament. It was in St Columba’s Church of Scotland in Lochee Road, Dundee. He opened the Church for the duration of the SNP Conference which was held in Dundee that year.
Jim Lynch
Edinburgh
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