Arthur Woodburn

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Arthur Woodburn (born October 25, 1890 in Edinburgh , † June 1, 1978 there ) was a Scottish politician ( Scottish Labor Party / Labor Party ).

Life and political career

Born the son of the bronze caster Matthew Woodburn and his wife Janet Brown, Woodburn studied at Heriot-Watt College in Edinburgh, the city of his birth. During the First World War he was arrested as a conscientious objector . He worked in the administration of the construction and cast iron industry for 25 years and was a lecturer and national secretary at the Scottish Labor College. Between 1932 and 1939 Woodburn was secretary of the Scottish Labor Party and from 1937 to 1965 President of the National Council of Labor Colleges ( National Council of Labor Colleges ). In the 1930s he was a member of the Hands-Off Russia Committee.

Woodburn ran in 1929 and 1931 in the constituencies of Edinburgh South and Edinburgh Leith, respectively, unsuccessfully in the British general election . Between October 1939 and June 1970 he was a member (MP) in the House of Commons for the constituency of Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire . In parliament he served as private parliamentary secretary for Thomas Johnston in 1941 and from 1945 to 1947 as parliamentary state secretary in the Ministry of Supply under John Wilmot, 1st Baron Wilmot of Selmeston . In the cabinet under Clement Attlee Woodburn was Minister responsible for Scotland from October 7, 1947 to February 28, 1950 . In 1947 he was appointed to the Privy Council . As head of a delegation of British MPs, Woodburn was the first guest speaker in the German Bundestag on September 18, 1951 .

The politician's interests lay in economics, education, European unity, international relations and Scottish history. In 1961 Woodburn was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Library of Scotland , which is where his writings are located. Woodburn had been married to teacher Barbara Halliday, who was a member of Edinburgh City Council , since 1919 .

literature

  • Iain Dale (Ed.): The Times House of Commons 1929, 1931, 1935. Politico's, London 2003, ISBN 1-84275-033-X .
  • David Torrance : The Scottish Secretaries. Birlinn, Edinburgh 2006, ISBN 9781841584768 .
  • The Times House of Commons 1945.
  • The Times House of Commons 1950.
  • The Times House of Commons 1955.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PERTHSHIRE-L Archives ( Memento of April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), in: ancestry.com , accessed on March 25, 2016 (English).
  2. ^ A b William Knox: Scottish Labor Leaders 1918–1939. A Biographical Dictionary. Mainstream, Edinburgh 1984, ISBN 0906391407 , p. 288.
  3. ↑ Guest speaker ( memento from September 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), in: bundestag.de , accessed on March 25, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Woodburn, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish Labor Party politician and member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 1978
Place of death Edinburgh , Scotland