Alexander Wilkie CH (30 September 1850 – 2 September 1928) was a Labour Party politician in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, best known for his service as a

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 ...

for

Dundee 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 ...

. Along with the

Dundonian 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 o ...

George Nicoll Barnes, Wilkie was one of the first-ever Labour MPs elected in Scotland.

Biography

Wilkie was born in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

in 1850 and, until his political career, was a ship carpenter. Wilkie was known for his work in the Labour movement serving as general secretary of the Ship Constructive and Shipwrights Association. He helped to form Labour Representation Committee and visited the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

as a member of the Mosely Commission in 1902. He unsuccessfully contested the Sunderland constituency at the 1900 general election but was elected 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. T ...

at the

1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting electi ...

as one of the two

Members 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

. Wilkie's election has been argued to be an important part of a broader process of political change in

, which saw the city's electorate move from supporting the

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 ...

to supporting the Labour Party. While he was an MP, Wilkie was a trustee of both

University College, Dundee A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

and the Dundee Technical College and School of Art. He also contributed to ''The Tocsin'', a monthly periodical that backed the Labour Party in Dundee and was edited by Joseph Lee. From 1908 to 1922, his colleague as MP for Dundee was a future

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, then a Liberal MP,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

. At the 1918 general election, both Wilkie and Churchill were supported by the local Unionists as well as their own party organisations. In Wilkie's case, that reflected both the fact that his political views had moved to the right since 1914 as well as his support for British involvement in the

Great 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 ...

. The ''

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'' noted in 1918 that Wilkie had "never been regarded as a rabid socialist" and had won support from many Liberal voters in the past because of his "moderate" opinions. It was reported in 1920 that Wilkie would retire at the next general election. Wilkie stood down at the 1922 general election. In the subsequent election not only was Churchill defeated by the only MP to be elected as a

prohibitionist Prohibitionism is a legal philosophy and political theory often used in lobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful (i.e. prohibited) and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement.C Canty ...

but Wilkie was replaced by the considerably more leftwing Labour MP E. D. Morel.

References

External links

* 1850 births 1929 deaths Scottish Labour MPs UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 People associated with Dundee Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dundee constituencies Members of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub