HE is certainly the oldest member of the SNP and, at 104, John Dougall of the Dunoon branch of the party may even be the oldest member of the Yes movement.
His 104th birthday on Saturday saw local SNP MP Brendan O’Hara and local Michael Russell, the Constitution Secretary of the Scottish Government, honour John at a celebration to mark the occasion.
John joined the SNP in 1942. While resident in Bradford he formed a Yorkshire SNP branch with Dr Robert McIntyre, who became the SNP’s first elected MP in Motherwell in 1945.
They were initially involved heavily with John MacCormick but parted company from him when he moderated his campaign away from independence towards devolution.
As John says: “Subsequent developments proved us right. John MacCormick got two million signatures on his Scottish Covenant campaign for a devolved Scottish assembly and Westminster just threw it in the bin.”
John has been in the SNP ever since and he and his wife Anne are very well known in Dunoon. They ran several businesses and opened the Health Food shop in Dunoon in 1980, running it until fairly recently. He was also delivering leaflets for the party into his 99th year and still takes an interest in the movement for independence.
Let’s all wish John a happy birthday – and perhaps get independence for him next year.
Let us know of your local veteran campaigners on community@thenational.scot
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