John James Davidson (13 December 1898, Inverness – 9 January 1976,

Leigh-on-Sea Leigh-on-Sea (), commonly referred to simply as Leigh, is a town and civil parish in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. In 2011, it had a population of 22,509. Geography Leigh-on-Sea is on the northern ...

)Dates taken from death certificate was a Scottish

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician. Davidson was born in Inverness, the son of a tailor, and moved to Glasgow at a young age. He served in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as an infantryman in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, enlisting underage and reaching the rank of corporal. Following the war, he worked for a Glasgow newspaper as a stereotyper in the printing industry, and became active in left-wing politics. He joined the committee of the Glasgow

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, and then in 1933 becoming chair of the Glasgow Labour Party. He was then elected as the

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 o ...

(MP) for Glasgow Maryhill at the

1935 UK general election The 1935 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 14 November 1935 and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party. The greatest number of members, a ...

. From 1940 to 1942 he served as the parliamentary private secretary to

Joseph Westwood Joseph Westwood (11 February 1884 – 17 July 1948) was a Scottish Labour Party politician. Educated at Buckhaven Higher Grade School, he worked as a draper's apprentice, messenger boy and miner. Westwood was an Industrial Organiser for Fife ...

, the under-secretary of state for Scotland.''Aberdeen Weekly Journal'', 8 October 1942 He stood down in 1945, and appears to have left Glasgow. He died aged 77 in Rochford Hospital,

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

, on 9 January 1976.

References

External links

* 1898 births 1976 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies UK MPs 1935–1945 Scottish Labour MPs Maryhill Royal Scots Fusiliers soldiers {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub