George Mackenzie Brown (1869 – 14 July 1946) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

publisher who also followed a political career. As a publisher, he produced

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's books; as a politician, he beat him to win election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. ...

Canadian origins

Brown was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, the son of newspaper publisher Hon. George Brown who was

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. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

Member of Parliament for

Ontario South Ontario South was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1925. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867. The South riding consisted initi ...

and a

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Canada, Dom ...

. He was sent to the leading private school

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an elite, all-boys, private school in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as the country's most prestigious preparatory school, and has produce ...

, and then back to his father's native Scotland to

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled a ...

from where he won entry into King's College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Business life

On leaving Cambridge, Brown became managing trustee of

Thomas Nelson and Sons Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in West Bow, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1798, as the namesake of its founder. It is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, the publishing unit of News Corp. It describes itself as a "world leading publisher a ...

, an

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

-based publisher; as a publisher he was following in his father's profession. One of Nelson's most popular authors was Dr

. In 1901 Brown married Mary Nelson, daughter of the founder of the firm.

Political career

When

William McEwan William McEwan () (16 July 1827 – 12 May 1913) was a Scottish politician and brewer. He founded the Fountain Brewery in 1856, served as a member of parliament (MP) from 1886 to 1900, and funded the construction of the McEwan Hall at the Univ ...

announced his retirement as

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Edinburgh Central, Brown was chosen to fight the seat."Scotland And The Coming Election", ''The Times'', 17 August 1900, p. 6. The Unionists did not choose their candidate for the seat until much closer to the election, but when they did, Brown found himself opposed by Dr Conan Doyle, standing as a

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

."Scotland", ''The Times'', 25 September 1900, p. 8. Conan Doyle did better than any previous Unionist candidate in the constituency, but Brown was elected by a majority of 569 votes.

Campaigns

Brown was regarded as unknown by the political world when elected.The ''

Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed int ...

'' guide to the

remarked (p. 64) that, apart from beating "the popular favourite", he "does not seem to be otherwise known to fame". The Pall Mall Gazette was a Liberal paper. On 16 October 1901 he introduced to

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...

a deputation from the Scottish

Temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

Legislation Board, who were campaigning for a change in the law to prohibit the sale of alcoholic liquor."Mr. Asquith In Edinburgh", ''The Times'', 17 October 1901, p. 9. He also pressed for more underground

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

lines between England and Scotland to aid communication."The Postmaster-General And Underground Telegraph Wires", ''The Times'', 8 March 1902, p. 5.

Retirement

In the autumn of 1902 Brown announced that he would not seek re-election at the next general election "Scottish Liberals And Home Rule", ''The Times'', 6 October 1902, p. 6. That October he voted for an

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish national ...

motion condemning the imprisonment of Irish MPs who were campaigning for the

United Irish League The United Irish League (UIL) was a nationalist political party in Ireland, launched 23 January 1898 with the motto ''"The Land for the People"''. Its objective to be achieved through agrarian agitation and land reform, compelling larger grazi ...

and land reform."Political Notes", ''The Times'', 29 October 1902, p. 8. He also joined the council of the Free Trade Union when it was set up in response to the demand for Tariff Reform in 1903. After the end of his political career, Brown moved to

Taynuilt Taynuilt (; , meaning 'the house by the stream') is a large village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland located at the western entrance to the narrow Pass of Brander. Location The village is situated on the River Nant about a kilometre before the rive ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

References

*M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" vol. II (Harvester Press, 1978)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, George Mackenzie 1869 births 1946 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Canadian people of Scottish descent Scottish Liberal Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Edinburgh constituencies People educated at Merchiston Castle School UK MPs 1900–1906 Scottish publishers (people)