James Halliday (27 February 1927 – 3 January 2013) was a Scottish author, historian and politician. He was the chairman (leader) of the

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) from 1956 to 1960.

Early life

Halliday was born in Woodburn Cottage, Wemyss Bay,

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern ba ...

, the son of James Wightman Halliday, an estate gardener. Halliday was educated at Skelmorlie Primary School and Greenock Academy. He joined the SNP in 1943, aged 16, and also registered for military service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Halliday began studying 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 ...

in 1944, joining the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association and playing an active part in union debates. Then

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

of the spine left him unable to stand until 1947, and it was 1952 before he graduated.

Educator

Halliday worked teaching history at Coatbridge High School, Uddingston Grammar School and Dunfermline High School. From 1967 to 1988 he taught at the Dundee College of Education, initially joining as a lecturer in history before becoming principal lecturer of history and head of department in 1979. He specialised in

modern history The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

and had a particular interest in the history, politics and constitution of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Political office

In 1956, Halliday was elected leader of the SNP when Robert McIntyre decided to step down due to his belief that there was some opposition to him remaining leader amongst the party ranks. Although aged only 28, Halliday seemed the natural replacement as he had been the SNP parliamentary candidate for Stirling and Falkirk Burghs at the 1955 general election, and the only other SNP candidate besides McIntyre. Halliday contested the Stirling and Falkirk Burghs seat again at the

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

general election and West Fife in

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 ...

. Halliday led the SNP for four years but felt he had to resign due to the pressures of working life. Halliday remained active in the SNP, and was a regular columnist for the Scots Independent newspaper and chairman of the company which publishes it.

Personal life

In 1955 he married Olive Campbell and they had two sons.

Published works

Source: Source: * ''America (World in Transformation)'' (1970) * ''Scotland: A Concise History'' (1990) * ''1820 Rising: The

Radical War The Radical War, also known as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, was a week of strikes and unrest in Scotland, a culmination of Radical demands for reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which had become prominent in the ea ...

'' (1993) * ''Yours for Scotland - a Memoir'' (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, James 1927 births 2013 deaths Leaders of the Scottish National Party Alumni of the University of Glasgow People from Inverclyde 20th-century Scottish historians Scottish schoolteachers People associated with Dundee Scottish National Party parliamentary candidates