Iain Somerled MacDonald MacCormick (28 September 1939 – 19 September 2014) was 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) politician.

Early life

MacCormick was born in

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 ...

. He was educated at the

High School of Glasgow The High School of Glasgow is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private, co-educational day school, day school in Glasgow, Scotland. The original High School of Glasgow was founded as the Cathedral school, choir school of Glasgow Cathedra ...

and

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

. He worked as a computer salesman, before leaving Glasgow in 1965 to become a teacher at Oban High School.

Political career

MacCormick belonged to a family steeped in nationalist politics: his father

John MacCormick John MacDonald MacCormick (20 November 1904 – 13 October 1961) was a Scottish lawyer, Scottish nationalist politician and advocate of Home Rule in Scotland. Early life MacCormick was born in Pollokshields, Glasgow, in 1904. His father was D ...

was one of the founders of the SNP, while his brother

Neil Neil is a masculine name of Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. As a surname ...

was, from 1999 to 2004, one of Scotland's

Members of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

, again for the Nationalists. He stood as the SNP candidate for Member of Parliament for

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle; , ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of western Scotland. The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975 and most of the area ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

. On his second attempt, MacCormick was elected Member of Parliament for

at the February 1974 general election, gaining the seat from the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

. He was re-elected in October 1974. At the 1979 general election he was defeated by the Conservative John MacKay. He was then elected to the Argyll and Bute District Council, after standing in a by-election in September 1979. MacCormick was one of the original members of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SDP), founded in 1981. He later returned to the SNP. MacCormick died on the night of 19 September 2014 aged 74.

References

Bibliography

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979'' *''Who's Who'' (155th edition, 2003) *

External links

* 1939 births 2014 deaths People educated at the High School of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish schoolteachers Scottish National Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Social Democratic Party (UK) politicians {{Scotland-UK-MP-stub