Margaret Anne Ewing (''née'' McAdam, formerly Bain; 1 September 1945 – 21 March 2006) 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 ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. She served as a

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 ...

(SNP)

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

East Dunbartonshire East Dunbartonshire ( sco, Aest Dunbartanshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Bhreatainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north of Glasgow and contains many of the affluent areas to the north of the city, including Bear ...

from 1974 to 1979 and

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

from 1987 to 2001, and was the

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The ad ...

(MSP) for

from 1999 until 2006. Ewing was Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party from 1984 to 1987 and leader of the SNP parliamentary group in the House of Commons from 1987 to 1999. She was a candidate for the SNP leadership in 1990.

Early life and career

Ewing was born Margaret Anne McAdam in Lanark, the daughter of John McAdam, a farm labourer. She was educated at

Biggar High School Biggar High School (Local education authority: South Lanarkshire) is a secondary school located in the town of Biggar, South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shie ...

. At the age of twelve she was diagnosed with tuberculosis with a thirteen-month stay in hospital on account of this. She went on to study at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, graduating with an MA degree in

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. She was an English teacher at

St Modan's High School St Modan's Roman Catholic High School is an S1-S6 Catholic high school in Stirling, Scotland. History In September 1933, St Modan's High School was officially opened by Archbishop McDonald of St Andrew's and Edinburgh. It was located in Barnsda ...

in Stirling from 1970 to 1973, before serving as principal teacher of

remedial education Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic ski ...

from 1973 to 1974.

Political career

Ewing joined the Scottish National Party as a student in 1966 and was president of the student group at the university. She was elected as

(MP) for

at the October 1974 election, by just 22 votes, when she was known as Margaret Bain; she had failed to win the seat at the previous election in February. In 1976 during a devolution debate she told the House of Commons that she identified as a Scot, a European and "a citizen of the world", but did not "feel British" and had "never identified... as British". At one point she burst into tears in the House of Commons when a devolution proposal was defeated. With the downturn in SNP electoral fortunes at the 1979 Election she lost her seat in the House of Commons. After working for a period as an administrator in social services in Glasgow, she unsuccessfully contested the Strathkelvin and Bearsden constituency at the 1983 Election. Ewing then worked as a freelance

. Now known as Margaret Ewing, she was selected by the SNP as their candidate for

at the 1987 election. She was re-elected to

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

and again in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, holding this seat until standing down at the 2001 general election to concentrate on Holyrood. She stood for the leadership of the SNP in 1990 but lost out to Alex Salmond despite the backing of many prominent SNP members (such as Jim Sillars). Ewing had become leader of the SNP's parliamentary group after the 1987 election. The leadership vacancy was caused by the fact that the SNP Chairman Gordon Wilson had lost his seat at Dundee Dundee East and previous group leader Donald Stewart had retired from parliament. While, the three SNP MPs elected in 1987 had not been members of the previous parliament, both Ewing and Andrew Welsh had served in parliament in the past. A post-election meeting held at

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

between Ewing, Welsh, Salmond (newly elected as MP for Banff and Buchan) and Wilson led to Ewing's appointment with Welsh becoming the group's chief whip. In 1999, at the first Scottish Parliament election she was returned to represent

. She was returned again in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. In August 2005, Ewing had announced that she was not seeking re-election at the

2007 Scottish Parliament elections The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. 2007 Scottish local elections, ...

. The SNP comfortably retained her vacant seat at the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

which took place on 27 April 2006.

Death

Ewing died from

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

, aged 60, on 21 March 2006.

Family

She was married twice: firstly to Donald Bain, a SNP research officer in 1968 (divorced 1980), and secondly to Fergus Ewing in 1983, who is the son of

Winnie Ewing Winifred Margaret Ewing (' Woodburn; born 10 July 1929) is a Scottish politician, lawyer and figure within the independence movement who served as President of the Scottish National Party from 1987 to 2005. Ewing was a Member of the Scottish P ...

and who also became a

. Her sister-in-law

Annabelle Ewing Annabelle Janet Ewing (born 20 August 1960) is a Scottish politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, alongside Liam McArthur, since May 2021. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), sh ...

is also an SNP politician.

References

External links

* *
SNP tribute pageSNP veteran Margaret Ewing dies
(BBC)
Times obituary
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ewing, Margaret 1945 births 2006 deaths People educated at Biggar High School Deaths from breast cancer Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Politics of Moray Scottish journalists Scottish women journalists Scottish National Party MPs Scottish National Party MSPs Scottish schoolteachers Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Strathclyde UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Female members of the Scottish Parliament 20th-century Scottish women politicians