Mary Fraser Dott (died about 1980) was a

Scottish nationalist Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and Scottish national identity, national identity. Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish ...

political activist and founding member of the

National Party of Scotland The National Party of Scotland (NPS) was a centre-left political party in Scotland which was one of the predecessors of the current Scottish National Party (SNP). The NPS was the first Scottish nationalist political party, and the first which c ...

and the Scottish National Party. She was a candidate for the Edinburgh East by-election of 1947.

Political career

Mary and her husband George Dott were already Scottish nationalists when, in 1928, they became founder members of the

;

William Wolfe William Cuthbertson Wolfe (22 February 1924 – 18 March 2010) was a Scottish accountant, manufacturer and Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He was the National Convenor (leader) of the SNP from 1969 to 1979, playing a central role in ...

, ''Scotland lives'', p.19 when this merged into the Scottish National Party (SNP), they became founder members of the new party. From the 1930s, Dott organised the Scottish Literature Society, and under this title, held events at her house in Edinburgh which included readings by people including

Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...

. In 1946, the SNP's revised policy document was developed and signed by leading party members at the Dott's house, and incorporated some of their ideas, taken from

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

and

Georgism Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—includi ...

. Following this, in 1947, she was appointed as the party's National Secretary.History of the SNP
, Aberdeen SNP During this time, she attended the 1948 Hague Congress on behalf of the party, and she stood unsuccessfully in the 1947 Edinburgh East by-election, taking 1,682 votes. She was the only woman to stand in a British parliamentary election for the party until

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 ...

in 1967. Although Dott stood down as National Secretary in 1951, she remained active in the party, opposing

John MacCormick John MacDonald MacCormick (20 November 1904 – 13 October 1961) was a Scottish lawyer, Scottish nationalist politician and advocate of Home Rule in Scotland. Early life MacCormick was born in Pollokshields, Glasgow, in 1904. His father was Dona ...

Scottish Covenant Association The Scottish Covenant Association was a non-partisan political organisation in Scotland in the 1940s and 1950s seeking to establish a devolved Scottish Assembly. It was formed by John MacCormick who had left the Scottish National Party in 1942 wh ...

split. She served on the SNP's publicity committee, and was involved in the campaign to have Queen Elizabeth II recognised as the first Elizabeth to rule over Scotland."Scottish nationalists claim victory", ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...

'', 6 April 1954, p.42 In 1962, she gave a speech at

Broxburn Broxburn ( gd, Srath Bhroc, IPA: �s̪ɾaˈvɾɔʰk is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the A89 road, from the West End of Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Airport and to the north of Livingston. Etymology The name Broxburn is a corruption of ...

in support of

, where she claimed that Scottish MPs were "afraid of being laughed at" due to their nationalities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dott, Mary Fraser Year of birth missing 1980 deaths Politicians from Edinburgh Scottish National Party politicians Scottish Renaissance Scottish National Party parliamentary candidates Scottish political candidates