Malcolm MacEwen (24 December 1911 – 11 May 1996) was a

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 ...

conservationist and communist activist.

Life

Born in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

, MacEwen was the son of Alexander MacEwen, first leader of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

. He was educated at

Rossall School Rossall School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for 0–18 year olds, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St Vincent Beechey as a sister school to Marlborough College ...

in England, as his father hoped he would not acquire a strong Scottish accent.Graham Stevenson,
MacEwan Malcolm
, ''Compendium of Communist Biography'' He studied forestry at the University of Aberdeen, during which time he lost a leg in a car accident.Chris Hall,
Obituary: Malcolm MacEwen
, '' The Independent'', 16 May 1996 He also joined the Labour Party, and served as a councillor in Banff for a time. However, he decided to requalify as a lawyer, studying at the University of Edinburgh, where he joined the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

(CPGB). Soon after this graduation he found work as a lawyer for the ''Scottish Daily Worker'', a short-lived edition of the communist ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'' newspaper. When the ''Scottish Daily Worker'' ceased publication, MacEwen began working directly for the CPGB as the party's North East England District Secretary. He stood for the party in the

1941 Dunbartonshire by-election The 1941 Dunbartonshire by-election was held on 27 February 1941. The by-election was held due to the appointment as sheriff substitute of the incumbent Labour MP, Thomas Cassells. It was won by the Labour candidate Adam McKinlay. Because of the ...

, the party's last contest before joining a political truce during World War II; he took 15.0% of the votes cast in a two-way race. MacEwen's wife and daughter died of diabetes-related complications in the 1940s. By this time, he was based in London, again working as a lawyer for the ''Daily Worker'', then later became the paper's foreign correspondent, and as its House of Commons correspondent. He stood again for the party in Glasgow Shettleston at the 1950 general election, taking just 4.1% of the vote. MacEwen became disillusioned with the CPGB, and resigned after the

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

in 1956. His position at the ''Daily Worker'' was untenable, and he instead found work at the '' Architects' Journal'', then in 1964 became editor of the Royal Institute of British Architects' '' RIBA Journal''. There, inspired by his second wife,

Ann MacEwen Ann MacEwen née Radford also known as Ann Maitland (15 August 1918 – 20 August 2008) was a British architect and town planner - known for championing National Parks and resisting the car's domination of planning in the UK. Life MacEwen was born ...

, he opposed prioritising traffic needs in planning,Chris Hall,
Ann MacEwen
, '' The Guardian'', 6 September 2008, Retrieved 14 February 2017 and called for increased public input into architecture, culminating in his book, ''Crisis in Architecture''. By this time, he was Director of Public Affairs for RIBA, a position from which he retired around the end of the decade. MacEwen and Ann retired to

Wootton Courtenay Wootton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on Exmoor in the Somerset West and Taunton district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Brockwell and Huntscott. The village lies on the route of the Macmillan Way West and the ...

in the Exmoor National Park, where they jointly wrote ''National Parks - Cosmetics or Conservation?'' in support of the role of

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

s in conservation. He also published an autobiography, ''The Greening of a Red''. He was cared for by Ann during a lengthy period of poor health during the 1990s, ending with his death in 1996.

Legacy

The '' RIBA Journal'' MacEwen Award takes place annually, recognising architecture for the common good. It was launched in 2015 and is named after Malcolm and Ann MacEwen. The MacEwen Essay Competition was launched by The Exmoor Society to mark its Diamond Jubilee in 2018 and to recognise the legacy of Malcolm and Ann MacEwen. A monument to MacEwen is located in the wall of a sheepfold at Larkbarrow in Exmoor National Park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacEwen, Malcolm 1911 births 1996 deaths Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Communist Party of Great Britain members Scottish Labour councillors People educated at Rossall School People from Inverness Scottish conservationists Scottish journalists