Thomas Murray Elder, Baron Elder (born 9 May 1950), known as Murray Elder, is a British Labour politician and member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

Education

Elder was educated at the

Kirkcaldy High School Kirkcaldy High School is a 6-year co-educational comprehensive state school in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. History The school was established in 1582 as Kirkcaldy Burgh School; the "High School" name dates from the middle part of the 19th&nb ...

and graduated from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

economic history Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and i ...

. He was a childhood friend of

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

Career

From 1972 to 1980, Elder worked for the Bank of England. From 1984 to 1992, he was a member of the Scottish Labour Party, and since 1988 its General Secretary. He was also a Labour member of the Executive of the

Scottish Constitutional Convention The Scottish Constitutional Convention (SCC) was an association of Scottish political parties, churches and other civic groups, that developed a framework for Scottish devolution. It is credited as having paved the way for the establishment of t ...

(1989-1992). After this, Elder became Chief of Staff to the MP John Smith, a post he held until 1994. He was special adviser to

Scottish Secretary The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for ...

Donald Dewar Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish politician who served as the inaugural First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He previously served as ...

at the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...

from 1997 to 1999. He was created a life peer as Baron Elder, of Kirkcaldy in Fife on 19 July 1999. He is the third Westminster parliamentarian, after Chris Smith and Alan Haworth, to have climbed all the Munros, the Scottish 3000 ft hills. He completed his round of the 284 peaks with an ascent of Beinn Sgritheall on 9 June 2007, and is no.3897 in the Scottish Mountaineering Club's list of Munroists. Lord Elder is the Chancellor of

Al-Maktoum Institute Al-Maktoum College Of Higher Education is a college located in Dundee, sponsored by Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and minister of finance of the United Arab Emirates. Formerly known as Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and ...

, a postgraduate research led higher education Institute based in

Dundee, Scotland Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. Elder was investigated over the payments from the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education and found that he did not register payments in the correct manner. He was also investigated over the misuse of parliamentary envelopes during the dismissal of the former principal of the Al-Maktoum College.

References

* 1950 births Labour Party (UK) life peers Living people People educated at Kirkcaldy High School Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish Labour politicians People from Kirkcaldy Life peers created by Elizabeth II {{Life-peer-stub

Education

Career

See also

References