William John Allan Macartney (17 February 1941 – 25 August 1998) was a Scottish politician who 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, ...

MEP for the North East Scotland constituency between the 1994

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

election and his sudden death from a heart attack in 1998.

Early life

Macartney was born in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, Gold Coast. He was the son of a

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

minister, his family soon returned to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and he was schooled in Elgin,

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' ...

. He studied at the universities of

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

and

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and then at the universities of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

(graduating in Economic Science in 1962) and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Upon completing his studies he returned to Africa as a voluntary secondary schoolteacher in eastern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

(1963−1964). He then worked as a lecturer in government and administration at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland from 1966 to 1974. He completed a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

on the politics of Botswana, supervised by John Mackintosh. Upon returning to Scotland, he continued his academic career, serving as Staff Tutor in

Politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

from 1975 to 1994. He founded the Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, and was elected Rector of the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

Political career

While at the University of Glasgow, he was a founder of the Federation of Student Nationalists in 1961. He was also the founder and Provost of the Scottish Self-Government College. In 1989 he stood as the SNP candidate for North East Scotland in the

1989 European Parliament election The 1989 European Parliament election was a held on June Wednesday 15 to Sunday 18 across the 12 European Union member state in June 1989. It was the third European Parliament election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the sam ...

where, despite a large increase in the share of the vote, he lost to Labour's Henry McCubbin. After this he was selected as a prospective candidate for the Westminster elections. He was unsuccessful in the 1991 Kincardine and Deeside by-election and at the same seat in the 1992 election. He was elected SNP depute leader in 1992. In

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Macartney was elected as the MEP for North East Scotland gaining the seat with a swing from Labour to the SNP of 7.6%. Macartney was elected Rector of the University of Aberdeen in 1996. In August 1998 Macartney was unanimously re-selected as the SNP's candidate for the 1999 European Parliament elections.

Death and legacy

Macartney collapsed and died on 25 August 1998 at his home in Aberdeen. A service of thanksgiving was held in St Machar's Cathedral. At the 1998 North East Scotland by-election, caused by Allan Macartney's death, Ian Hudghton held the seat for the SNP with a substantially increased majority. In 2000, the University of Aberdeen introduced a new scholarship in his honour.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, Allan 1941 births 1998 deaths Academics of the Open University Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Glasgow Rectors of the University of Aberdeen People from Moray Elders of the Church of Scotland Scottish National Party MEPs MEPs for Scotland 1994–1999 University of Tübingen alumni University of Marburg alumni