Hector McNeil (10 March 1907 – 11 October 1955) was a Scottish Labour politician who was

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland (; ), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incum ...

from 1950 to 1951.

Life

McNeil was born in Garelochhead and educated at Woodside School and 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 ...

, trained as an engineer and worked as a journalist on a Scottish national newspaper. He was a member of Glasgow Town Council from 1932 to 1938. He chaired Glasgow Trades Council and stood for Parliament unsuccessfully in

Galloway Galloway ( ; ; ) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the counties of Scotland, historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council areas of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Gallow ...

in 1929 and 1931, in Glasgow Kelvingrove in 1935 and in Ross and Cromarty in 1936. In 1939, he married Sheila Craig, and they had one son. A member of the party's right wing, he was elected Member of Parliament for Greenock unopposed in a wartime by-election in 1941. Following the 1945 election, McNeil became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He was promoted to

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

at the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

in October 1946, de facto deputy to the Foreign Secretary,

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and ...

, and appointed a member of the Privy Council. Through his position at the Foreign Office, he was vice-president of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

in 1947 and leader of the British delegation to the

Economic Commission for Europe The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE or UNECE) is an intergovernmental organization or a specialized body of the United Nations. The UNECE is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Econom ...

, 1948. It was later revealed that his personal assistant and private secretary at the time, Guy Burgess, was a Soviet agent, although McNeil never came under suspicion. He served as

from February 1950 until October 1951 in the government of

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

. In the last years of his life, he served as managing director of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. In 1955, when travelling to New York City for business on the RMS Queen Mary, he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage; upon arriving in New York on 3 October, he was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died on 11 October, aged 48.

Hector McNeil Memorial Baths

The Hector McNeil Memorial Baths was a swimming pool in the town of Greenock named in honour of McNeil. The foundation stone was laid by McNeil's wife on 9 October 1963. The baths were demolished in 2002 after the Greenock Waterfront Leisure Centre opened.

Hector McNeil House

In May 2014, Inverclyde Council approved the name Hector McNeil House for the former library building in Clyde Square, Greenock when it re-opened as the main offices for Community Health and Care Partnership services in August 2014. Hector McNeil House, along with surrounding areas, will be demolished in 2025 after several years of planning on the regeneration of the area. Plans reveal that the mural on the façade of the Hector McNeil House, designed by Charles Anderson in 1970 will be restored and be incorporated into the design of the new eastern façade of the nearby Oak Mall, during its reconstruction.

References

Sources

* Torrance, David, ''The Scottish Secretaries'' (Birlinn), 2006.

External links

* 1907 births 1955 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish Labour MPs Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Secretaries of State for Scotland People associated with Inverclyde UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 20th-century Scottish businesspeople Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub