John Bannerman, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan

John MacDonald Bannerman, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan OBE (born September 1, 1901 in Glasgow ; † May 10, 1969 in Tidworth , Hampshire ), Scottish Gaelic : Iain mac Iain Mac-a'-Bhrataich , was a Scottish farmer, rugby Players and politicians of the Scottish Liberal Party .

Family and education

John Bannerman was the son of John Roderick Bannerman, a postal worker from the Hebridean island of South Uist , but who was already living in Glasgow at the time of his son's birth . Bannerman was proud of his Highland origins and spoke Gaelic . Bannerman went to Shawlands Academy and Glasgow High School . He graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Bachelor of Science degree and then went first to Balliol College in Oxford and later to Cornell University in the United States . In 1931 he married Ray Mundell and had two sons and two daughters with her. One of the daughters was the Liberal Democrat MP Ray Michie (later Baroness Michie of Gallanach). Historian John Bannermann was one of his sons, and rugby player and coach David "Shade" Munro was his grandson.

Rugby union

Bannerman began playing rugby union while he was still in school and was Captain of the First XV at Glasgow High School from 1919-20 . He was a successful athlete who achieved a rugby blue at Oxford University and thirty-seven caps (international appearances) for the Scottish National Rugby Union team in 1921-29 . He had most of the Glasgow Hawks' caps . 1954-55 he was President of the Scottish Rugby Union .

Career

Bannerman became a land manager on the estate of James Graham, 6, Duke of Montrose in 1930 until he became an independent farmer in 1952. He received an OBE for his services to the Festival of Britain .

politics

Bannerman was politically active since the 1930s and was mainly interested in the problems of rural exodus and unemployment in the Scottish Highlands and on the Scottish Isles. 1942-57 he was a Forestry Commissioner . In 1938 he was nominated as a possible Liberal Party candidate for the general election in the Argyllshire constituency . When the seat became vacant in 1940, he could have come to the House of Commons for the National Liberal Party , but after negotiations with the Conservative Party failed, there was no way of doing it. He ran unsuccessfully in the 1945 British general election and the 1950 British general election in Inverness and ran in the unscheduled Inverness By-election, 1954 , which some historians see as the turning point for the coming electoral successes of the Liberals in Scotland or even the United Kingdom . From a starting position with no liberal candidates, Bannermann took second place ahead of Labor, and with only 1,331 votes less than the conservative winner in the British general election in 1951 . That was the best election result for the Liberals since World War II . In the British general election in 1955 he came even closer, so that he was only 966 votes short. Although his share of the vote in the British general election in 1959 fell, the cornerstone was laid for an election victory of his party friend Russell Johnston in the British general election in 1964 , who held this seat until 1997.

Bannerman was 1954 to 1964 Chairman of the Scottish Liberal Party and 1957 Rector of Aberdeen University . He made further attempts to be elected to the House of Commons , including a narrow loss to Labor in Paisley in the 1961 by-election. He tried again unsuccessfully in the 1964 British General Election , but in December 1967 he was named Baron Bannerman of Kildonan , of Kildonan in the County of Sutherland , raised to the status of a Life Peer and ultimately entered Parliament.

House of Lords

Bannerman was then one of three Liberals who came to the House of Lords as Life Peers . The others were Tim Beaumont and John Foot . Her appointment was criticized as undemocratic by the Young Liberals .

In his inaugural address at the House of Lords, he reported from a Scottish perspective the discontent in Hamilton , where the Scottish National Party had just won a general election, and warned that this could be explained by the pent-up anger of two centuries because the Scots put it that way he was a sleeping partner in the UK political scene during this time.

swell

• Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1-905326-24-6 )
• Fowler, John (ed.) Bannerman: the Memoirs of Lord Bannerman of Kildonan , (Impulse Books, Aberdeen, 1972 ISBN 0-901311-19-7 )
• McLaren, Bill Talking of Rugby (1991, Stanley Paul, London ISBN 0-09-173875-X )
• Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6 )
• Scrum.com player profiles

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Richard J. Finlay: Bannerman, John Macdonald, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan (1901–1969) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press . 2004. doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 40285 . Retrieved May 30, 2009.
2. ^ Ray Michie: John Bannerman in Dictionary of Liberal Biography , Brack et al. (Editor), Politico's, 1998.
3. ^ The Times , May 12, 1969.
4. ^ John MacDonald Bannerman, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan on thepeerage.com , accessed September 10, 2016.
5. ↑ One last hurray.
6. ^ Bath, p. 140.
7. ↑ Dr. John Bannerman
8. ↑ Glasgow Hawks. ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 39421, HMSO, London, December 28, 1951, p. 12 ( PDF , accessed May 30, 2009, English).
10. ↑ Who was Who , OUP, 2007.
11. ^ Alun Wyburn-Powell, The Inverness Turning Point , Journal of Liberal History, Issue 53, Winter 2006-07.
12. ↑ C. Cook & J. Ramsden, By-elections in British Politics , UCL Press, 1997.
13. ↑ London Gazette . No. 44469, HMSO, London, December 5, 1967, p. 13287 ( PDF , accessed May 30, 2009, English).
14. ^ The Times , Nov. 17, 1967.
15. ^ The Times , December 6, 1967.