Sir Donald Maclean (9 January 1864 – 15 June 1932) was a British

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. He was

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

between 1918 and 1920 and served in the Cabinet of

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

's National Government as

President of the Board of Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

from 1931 until his death in June the following year.

Life and career

Born in

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Within the historic county of Lancashire, Farnworth lies on ...

, near

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, Maclean was the eldest son of John Maclean, a

cordwainer A cordwainer () is a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather. The cordwainer's trade can be contrasted with the cobbler's trade, according to a tradition in Britain that restricted cobblers to repairing shoes. This usage distinction is ...

originally of

Tiree Tiree (; , ) is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of and a population of around 650. The land is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, and fishing are ...

in the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...

, and his wife Agnes Macmillan. His younger brother was Sir Ewen Maclean. Maclean practiced as a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

with practices in Cardiff and

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is located in Holborn and is the List of city squares by size, largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a ...

, London. A member of the

Presbyterian Church of England The Presbyterian Church of England was a late-19th-century and 20th-century Presbyterianism, Presbyterian denomination in England. The church's origins lay in the 1876 merger of the English congregations of the chiefly Scottish United Presbyterian ...

, he was vice-president of the Cardiff Free Church Council in 1902–3, and also worked closely with the

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity founded as the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC) by Thomas Agnew on 19 April 1883. The NSPCC lobbies t ...

. He was a last-minute choice as one of the

candidates in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

at the 1900 general election, but was defeated at the polls."The Popular Guide to the House of Commons" (''Pall Mall Gazette'' "Extra"), February 1906, p. 48. At the

1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting e ...

, he stood again and was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the constituency. Whilst an MP, he voted in favour of the 1908 Women's Enfranchisement Bill. He lost his seat at the

January 1910 general election The January 1910 UK general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. Called amid a constitutional crisis after the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected the People's Budget, the Liberal government, seeking a mandate, los ...

, but moved constituency at the

December 1910 general election The December 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 3 to 19 December. It was the last general election to be held over several days and the last to be held before the First World War. The election took place following the efforts of ...

and was returned for Peebles and Selkirk,"The Popular Guide to the House of Commons" (''Pall Mall Gazette'' "Extra"), January 1911, p. 136. a seat he held until 1918. He then represented Peebles and South Midlothian between 1918 and 1922, losing in the

1922 United Kingdom general election The 1922 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 15 November 1922. It was won by the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law, which gained an overall majority over the Labour Party, led by J. R. Clynes, and ...

, and then the Northern Division of Cornwall between 1929 and 1932. Maclean was appointed a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former ...

in 1916, and was knighted in 1917. He was Leader of the Liberal Parliamentary Party from 1918 to 1920, as the leader of the

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...

had lost his seat 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 ...

. For those two years he also served as

, while Labour had no official leader and

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

had proclaimed the

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( or ) was a Revolutionary republic, revolutionary state that Irish Declaration of Independence, declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdict ...

and the

First Dail First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

.Douglas in ''The History of the Liberal Party 1895–1970'' observes that "The technical question whether the Leader of the Opposition was Maclean or

William Adamson William Adamson (2 April 1863 – 23 February 1936) was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. He was Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1917 to 1921 and was Secretary of State for Scotland in ...

, Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, was never fully resolved ... The fact that Adamson did not press his claim for Opposition leadership is of more than technical interest, for it shows that the Labour Party was still not taking itself seriously as a likely alternative government" Towards the end of his life, Maclean joined the National Government headed by

. He served as

from 1931 to 1932.Robert Cecil (1988) ''A Divided Life - A Biography of Donald Maclean''. the University of Michigan. p. 20. He died from

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...

on 15 June 1932 at the age of sixty-eight.

Family

Maclean married Gwendolen Margaret Devitt (26 September 1880 – 23 July 1962), daughter of Andrew Devitt (1850–1931) and Jane Dales Morrison (1856–1947), on 2 October 1907. They are buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church,

Penn Penn may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Penn'' (film), 1954 Tamil film starring Vyjayanthimala * ''Penn'' (TV series), a 1991 Tamil mini-series * ''Penn'' (TV series), a 2006 Tamil-language soap opera * '' The Penn'', or ''The Stylus'', ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, together with their eldest son, Ian. The diplomat and spy,

Donald Duart Maclean Donald Duart Maclean (; 25 May 1913 – 6 March 1983) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent who participated in the Cambridge Five spy ring. After being recruited by a Soviet agent as an undergraduate student, Maclean entered the civil ...

, was another of his sons; his ashes are also buried there. The couple also had two more sons and a daughter.

References

Bibliography

* ''History of the Liberal Party 1895–1970'', by

Roy Douglas Richard Roy Douglas (12 December 1907 – 23 March 2015) was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to William Walton and Ralph Vaughan Williams, made well-known orchestrations of works such as ''Les Sylphide ...

(Sidgwick & Jackson 1971) * ''Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume III 1919–1945'', edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1979)

External links

*
Donald MacLean & the 1919 Treaty of Peace Act - UK Parliament Living HeritageBiography at liberalhistory.org.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Donald 1864 births 1932 deaths British Secretaries of State for Education Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Presidents of the Liberal Party (UK) Scottish Liberal Party MPs Leaders of the Liberal Party (UK) People from Farnworth Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 English Presbyterians Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for North Cornwall Politics of Bath, Somerset National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people