Donald Dewar

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The Right Honourable

Donald Dewar
Donald Dewar First Minister.jpg
Dewar as First Minister of Scotland
First Minister of Scotland
In office
17 May 1999 – 11 October 2000
MonarchElizabeth II
DeputyJim Wallace
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJim Wallace (acting)
Henry McLeish
Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
In office
7 May 1999 – 11 October 2000
LeaderTony Blair
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHenry McLeish
Secretary of State for Scotland
In office
2 May 1997 – 17 May 1999
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byMichael Forsyth
Succeeded byJohn Reid
Shadow Cabinet positions
Opposition Chief Whip of the House of Commons
In office
19 October 1995 – 2 May 1997
LeaderTony Blair
Preceded byDerek Foster
Succeeded byAlastair Goodlad
Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security
In office
24 July 1992 – 19 October 1995
LeaderJohn Smith
Margaret Beckett (acting)
Tony Blair
ShadowingPeter Lilley
Preceded byMichael Meacher
Succeeded byChris Smith
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
In office
31 October 1983 – 24 July 1992
LeaderNeil Kinnock
ShadowingGeorge Younger
Malcolm Rifkind
Ian Lang
Preceded byBruce Millan
Succeeded byTom Clarke
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Glasgow Anniesland
In office
6 May 1999 – 11 October 2000
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byBill Butler
Member of Parliament
for Glasgow Anniesland
Glasgow Garscadden (1978–1997)
In office
13 April 1978 – 11 October 2000
Preceded byWilliam Small
Succeeded byJohn Robertson
Member of Parliament
for Aberdeen South
In office
31 March 1966 – 18 June 1970
Preceded byPriscilla Buchan
Succeeded byIain Sproat
Personal details
Born
Donald Campbell Dewar

(1937-08-21)21 August 1937
Glasgow, Scotland
Died11 October 2000(2000-10-11) (aged 63)
Edinburgh, Scotland
Cause of deathCerebral hemorrhage
Political partyLabour
Spouse(s)
Alison McNair
​
​
(m. 1964; div. 1973)​
Children2
EducationUniversity of Glasgow
CabinetDewar government

Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 1999 to 2000. He served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997 to 1999 and was a Member of Parliament (MP) for three constituencies from 1966 to 1970 and 1978 to 2000.

Dewar first entered politics in the early 1960s, and was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen South following the 1966 general election. After losing his seat in 1970, he served in the House of Commons again from 1978 until his death in 2000.[1] Dewar was an advocate of Scottish devolution. He served as Secretary of State for Scotland in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet from 1997 to 1999, successfully campaigning for a Scottish Parliament in the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum.

Having led the Labour campaign in the run up to the first Scottish Parliament election, he subsequently became the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Anniesland on 6 May 1999, and was appointed Leader of the Scottish Labour Party a day later and became the first Scottish First Minister as the head of a devolved coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.

On 11 October 2000, Dewar died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 63 while still in office. He was succeeded as First Minister and Scottish Labour leader by Henry McLeish.

Biography[edit]

Dewar was born in Glasgow on 21 August 1937 as the only child of Alasdair (1897–1973) and Mary Dewar (née Bennett). His father was a dermatologist and a former general practitioner. Both Dewar's parents had ill health during his childhood; his father contracted tuberculosis and his mother suffered from a benign brain tumour when Donald was young.[2]

He attended The Glasgow Academy, and was admitted to the University of Glasgow in 1957, where he gained an MA degree in History in 1961, a second-class LLB degree in 1964, and was an editor of the Glasgow University Guardian.

Dewar met several future politicians at the university Dialectic Society, including John Smith (who would later become leader of the Labour Party), Sir Menzies Campbell (who would later become leader of the Liberal Democrats) and Lord Irvine of Lairg (who would serve as Lord Chancellor in the same Cabinet as Dewar). At university, he also served as chair of the Glasgow University Labour Club and president of the Glasgow University Union.

On 20 July 1964, Dewar married Alison Mary McNair, with whom he had two children: a daughter, Marion, and a son, Ian. In 1972, McNair separated from Dewar and entered a relationship with the then Derry Irvine, a prominent Scottish barrister in London. Dewar and his wife divorced in 1973, and he never remarried.[3] Dewar and Lord Irvine of Lairg never reconciled, even though they later served in the same Cabinet from May 1997 until 1999.

Member of Parliament[edit]

He worked as a solicitor in Glasgow after graduating from university, and was also a member of the Labour Party, and soon turned his sights towards being elected to parliament. In 1962, he was selected as the Labour candidate for the Aberdeen South constituency. In the 1964 general election, he failed to win the seat, but won it at the 1966 general election at the age of 28—defeating Priscilla Tweedsmuir by 1,799 votes.

In his maiden speech to the House of Commons in the same year, Dewar spoke against a proposed increase on potato tax. His speech became his first political success: as the tax was repealed the following year in 1967. Also in 1967, Dewar was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Education Secretary Anthony Crosland, with whom Dewar later confessed to having never establishing a rapport—saying Crosland was a "very odd man".

Dewar remained in that position at the Department of Education until 1969, in which year Dewar opposed a visit to Aberdeen by the Springbok rugby team and staged a silent vigil near the team's ground. In April 1968, he was proposed for a Minister of State position by Roy Jenkins, but was not appointed. Dewar lost his constituency seat to the Conservative candidate Iain Sproat at the 1970 general election by over 1,000 votes.

Out of parliament[edit]

Dewar spent much of the 1970s looking for another parliamentary seat. He hosted a Friday evening talk show on Radio Clyde, and in June 1971 was beaten by Dennis Canavan when he applied for the seat of West Stirlingshire. He worked as a solicitor for much of that decade and became a reporter on children's panels and was involved with the Lanarkshire local authority. Dewar became a partner in Ross Harper Murphy, in 1975.

In September 2009, Dennis Canavan said Dewar reacted callously when his son was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1989. The disease eventually killed him. Canavan said Dewar remarked, "Oh no! That's all we need. He was mad enough before but I shudder to think what he'll be like now."[4]

Return to Westminster[edit]

Donald Dewar was selected for the seat Glasgow Garscadden by a majority of three, after Dewar's friend in the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers MP Willie Small died unexpectedly. He was returned to parliament at a by-election on 13 April 1978, a crucial victory which was seen as halting the rise of the Scottish National Party. In Scotland's first referendum on devolution, held in March 1979, he campaigned for a "Yes" vote alongside the Conservative Alick Buchanan-Smith and the Liberal Russell Johnston. Though they won a narrow majority, it fell short of the 40% required, contributing to the downfall of the Callaghan Government, in May 1979.

Opposition[edit]

Dewar gained a parliamentary platform as chairman of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. After a year honing his inquisitorial skills, he joined the front bench in November 1980 as a Scottish affairs spokesman when Michael Foot became party leader. In 1981, as the Labour Party divided itself further due to internal disagreement, Dewar was almost deselected in his constituency by hard left activists, but he successfully defended himself against this threat.

He rose quickly through the ranks, becoming Shadow Scottish Secretary in November 1983. On 21 December 1988, Dewar was in Lockerbie after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103,[5] as the member of the Shadow Cabinet in charge of Scottish affairs. In 1992, John Smith made him Shadow Social security Secretary and three years later, Dewar was made a Chief Whip for the Labour Party by Tony Blair.

In government[edit]

At the 1997 general election, he became MP for Glasgow Anniesland, which was mostly the same constituency with minor boundary changes. Labour won this election by a landslide, and Dewar was given the post of Secretary of State for Scotland. He was able to start the devolution process he dreamt of years earlier, and worked tirelessly on creating the Scotland Act, popularly referred to as "Smith's unfinished business". When ratified, this was to give Scotland its first Parliament for nearly 300 years.

First Minister of Scotland[edit]

'There shall be a Scottish parliament.' Through long years, those words were first a hope, then a belief, then a promise. Now they are a reality.

—Dewar, at the official opening of the Scottish Parliament on 1 July 1999.[6]

Dewar (left) with Queen Elizabeth II and Presiding Officer David Steel (right) at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, July 1999

In January 1998, he confirmed that he would stand for a seat in the Scottish Parliament.[7] The first elections to the Scottish Parliament were held on 6 May 1999, with Dewar leading the Scottish Labour Party against their main opponents, the Scottish National Party led by Alex Salmond.

He was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Anniesland, having the unusual distinction of being both an MP and MSP for the same constituency. Although Scottish Labour won more seats than any other party, they did not have a majority in Parliament to allow them to form an Executive without the help of a smaller party. A deal was agreed with the Scottish Liberal Democrats to form a coalition, with Dewar agreeing to their demand for the abolition of up front tuition fees for university students.[8]

On 13 May 1999, Dewar was nominated as First Minister, and was officially appointed by the Queen on 17 May at a ceremony in the Palace of Holyroodhouse. He later travelled to the Court of Session to be sworn in by the Lord President and receive the Great Seal of Scotland.[9]

On 16 June, Dewar set out the legislative programme for the Executive which included: an Education bill to improve standards in Scottish schools; land reform to give right of access to the countryside, a bill to abolish the feudal system of land tenure; and a bill to establish National Parks in Scotland.[10]

Death and funeral[edit]

In 2002, a nine-foot (2.7 m) bronze statue of Dewar was erected outside Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall in a ceremony attended by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, and other Scottish politicians.[11]

In April 2000, Dewar was admitted to hospital for tests on his heart, following a previous test where a minor irregularity was discovered.[12] In May 2000, he had surgery to repair a leaking heart valve, and was forced to take a three-month break from Parliament, with Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace taking over as Acting First Minister.[13] He returned to work on 14 August 2000.[14]

Dewar dealt with the 2000 exam results fiasco and the lorry drivers' strike, and attended the Labour Party conference in Brighton, but at the end of September he told the historian Tom Devine in Dublin that if there was no surge of the energy of old, he would have to reappraise the situation within a few months.[15]

On 10 October 2000 around lunchtime, Dewar sustained a fall. He seemed fine at first, but later that day suffered a massive brain haemorrhage which was possibly triggered by the anticoagulant medication he was taking following heart surgery. He died the following day in Edinburgh's Western General Hospital, never having regained consciousness. He was 63 years old.

Dewar's funeral service was held at Glasgow Cathedral, amid scenes of mourning unknown for a politician in Scotland's largest city. He was cremated on 18 October 2000, and his ashes were scattered at Lochgilphead in Argyll.

"Although he has become something of a political legend, Donald would have abhorred any attempt to turn him into some kind of secular saint. He would have been horrified at a Diana-style out-pouring of synthetic grief at his untimely death." — Iain MacWhirter, Sunday Herald, 15 October 2000.

Controversies[edit]

Bust of Donald Dewar by Archie Forrest in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

One of the first scandals to hit the new Scottish Parliament occurred when allegations that the lobbying arm of public relations company Beattie Media had privileged access to ministers were published, prompting Dewar to ask the standards committee to investigate the reports.[16] The Minister for Finance, Jack McConnell, was called to appear before the standards committee during the investigation although he was later cleared of any wrongdoing and the committee declared there was no evidence he had been influenced from lobbying by Beattie Media.[17]

Dewar also threatened to sack any minister or aide who briefed the media against another member of the Scottish Executive, following public rows between Jack McConnell and the Minister of Health and Community Care, Susan Deacon over the budget allocated to health .[18]

Dewar amassed a personal fortune in excess of £2,000,000 including public utility shares, antiques and artwork with a value of over £400,000.[19]

Legacy[edit]

Dewar's work for the Scottish Parliament has led him to be called the "Father of the Nation".[20][21]

In May 2002, then Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled a statue of Donald Dewar at the top of Glasgow's Buchanan Street, a street in Glasgow city centre. In keeping with his famous unkempt appearance, it showed Dewar wearing a slightly crushed jacket.

The statue was taken down in October 2005 to be cleaned, and was re-erected on 6-foot (1.8 m) high plinth in December in an effort to protect it from vandalism. On the base of the statue were inscribed the opening words of the Scotland Act: "There Shall Be A Scottish Parliament", a phrase to which Dewar himself famously said, "I like that!"

Dewar called the Old Royal High School on Calton Hill in Edinburgh a "nationalist shibboleth", mainly because it had been the proposed site of the Scottish Assembly in the 1979 referendum. Dewar's opposition to the Calton Hill site partly contributed to the selection of the Holyrood site, which proved expensive.

The First ScotRail Class 334 train 334001 was named Donald Dewar in his memory. The "Dewar Arts Award" was created by the Scottish Executive in 2002 dedicated to his memory. This award supports talented young Scottish artists.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 2007
  2. ^ Allan 2000, para. 5
  3. ^ "Ministers turn their backs on marriage". Daily Mail. 15 January 2001. Retrieved 17 August 2007.
  4. ^ The Herald 2009
  5. ^ The Scottish Government, 1998
  6. ^ Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations
  7. ^ "Dewar to stand for Scottish parliament". BBC News. 8 January 2008. Archived from the original on 9 April 2003. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  8. ^ The Guardian, 1999
  9. ^ BBC News, 1999a
  10. ^ BBC News, 1999b
  11. ^ BBC News 2002
  12. ^ BBC News 2000a
  13. ^ BBC News 2000b
  14. ^ BBC News 2000c
  15. ^ "Donald Dewar" Archived 13 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Electronic Scotland, October 2000
  16. ^ "Probe launched into lobbying allegations" Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News
  17. ^ "Scotland Standards watchdog clears McConnell" Archived 15 December 2003 at the Wayback Machine BBC News
  18. ^ Public Finance- 14 July 2000 Archived 7 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Womersley, Tara (2 July 2001). "£2m legacy of Dewar, the canniest of Scots". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014.
  20. ^ "'Father of nation' dies". BBC News. 11 October 2000. Archived from the original on 17 December 2006. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  21. ^ Grice, Andrew (12 October 2000). "The Father of the Nation, who made good on the unfinished business of devolution". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 17 September 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  22. ^ "The Dewar Awards". Dewar Awards. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Priscilla Buchan 		Member of Parliament
for Aberdeen South
1966–1970 		Succeeded by
Iain Sproat
Preceded by
William Small 		Member of Parliament
for Glasgow Garscadden
1978–1997 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament
for Glasgow Anniesland
1997–2000 		Succeeded by
John Robertson
Political offices
Preceded by
Michael Forsyth 		Secretary of State for Scotland
1997–1999 		Succeeded by
John Reid
New office First Minister of Scotland
1999–2000 		Succeeded by
Jim Wallace
Acting
Party political offices
New office Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
1999–2000 		Succeeded by
Henry McLeish
Scottish Parliament
New constituency Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Glasgow Anniesland
1999–2000 		Succeeded by
Bill Butler
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