Margaret Anne Ewing (''née'' McAdam, formerly Bain; 1 September 1945 – 21 March 2006) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

politician and journalist. She served as a

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) Member of Parliament for

East Dunbartonshire East Dunbartonshire (; , ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders Glasgow City Council Area to the south, North Lanarkshire to the east, Stirling (council area), Stirling to the north, and West Dunbartonshire to the west. East ...

from 1974 to 1979 and

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

from 1987 to 2001, and was the

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

(MSP) for

from 1999 until 2006. Ewing was Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party from 1984 to 1987 and leader of the SNP parliamentary group in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1987 to 1999. She was a candidate for the SNP leadership in 1990.

Early life and career

Ewing was born Margaret Anne McAdam in

Lanark Lanark ( ; ; ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a populatio ...

, the daughter of John McAdam, a farm labourer. She was educated at Biggar High School. At the age of twelve she was diagnosed with tuberculosis with a thirteen-month stay in hospital on account of this. She went on to study at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, graduating with an MA degree in English language and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. She was an English teacher at St Modan's High School in

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

from 1970 to 1973, before serving as principal teacher of

remedial education Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic sk ...

from 1973 to 1974.

Political career

Ewing joined the Scottish National Party as a student in 1966 and was president of the student group at the university. She was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for

at the October 1974 election, by just 22 votes, when she was known as Margaret Bain; she had failed to win the seat at the previous election in February. In 1976 during a devolution debate she told the House of Commons that she identified as a Scot, a European and "a citizen of the world", but did not "feel British" and had "never identified... as British". At one point she burst into tears in the House of Commons when a devolution proposal was defeated. With the downturn in SNP electoral fortunes at the 1979 Election she lost her seat in the House of Commons. After working for a period as an administrator in social services in Glasgow, she unsuccessfully contested the Strathkelvin and Bearsden constituency at the 1983 Election. Ewing then worked as a freelance journalist. Now known as Margaret Ewing, she was selected by the SNP as their candidate for

at the 1987 election. She was re-elected to

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

and again in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, holding this seat until standing down at the 2001 general election to concentrate on Holyrood. She stood for the leadership of the SNP in 1990 but lost out to

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond ( ; 31 December 1954 – 12 October 2024) was a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he was Leader of the Sc ...

despite the backing of many prominent SNP members (such as Jim Sillars). Ewing had become leader of the SNP's parliamentary group after the 1987 election. The leadership vacancy was caused by the fact that the SNP Chairman Gordon Wilson had lost his seat at Dundee Dundee East and previous group leader Donald Stewart had retired from parliament. While the three SNP MPs elected in 1987 had not been members of the previous parliament, both Ewing and Andrew Welsh had served in parliament in the past. A post-election meeting held at

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

between Ewing, Welsh, Salmond (newly elected as MP for

Banff and Buchan Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland, covering an area along the northern coast of the council area. The main towns are Banff and Fraserburgh. Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with ...

) and Wilson led to Ewing's appointment with Welsh becoming the group's chief whip. In 1999, at the first Scottish Parliament election she was returned to represent

. She was returned again in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. In August 2005, Ewing had announced that she was not seeking re-election at the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections. The SNP comfortably retained her vacant seat at the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

which took place on 27 April 2006.

Death

Ewing died from breast cancer, aged 60, on 21 March 2006.

Family

She was married twice: firstly to Donald Bain, a SNP research officer in 1968 (divorced 1980), and secondly to Fergus Ewing in 1983, who is the son of Winnie Ewing and who also became a

. Her sister-in-law Annabelle Ewing is also an SNP politician.

References

External links

* *
SNP tribute pageSNP veteran Margaret Ewing dies
(BBC)
Times obituary
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ewing, Margaret 1945 births 2006 deaths Deaths from breast cancer in Scotland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Politics of Moray Scottish journalists Scottish women journalists Scottish National Party MPs Scottish National Party MSPs Scottish schoolteachers Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Strathclyde UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Female members of the Scottish Parliament 20th-century Scottish women politicians M