George Malcolm Thomson

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(1899–1996) was a Scottish journalist and publicist for

Scottish nationalism 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 Scottis ...

. He is now best known for the

sectarian Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or religious conflicts between groups. Others conceive of sectarianism a ...

slant he adopted the 1930s, aimed at

Irish-Scots Irish-Scots or Hiberno-Scots may refer to:: * Ulster Scots people ** Scotch-Irish Americans ** Scotch-Irish Canadians * Ulster Scots dialect * Irish Scottish people See also * Ulster Scots (disambiguation) * Scots (disambiguation) Scots may ...

, and as an activist working on behalf of the

Scottish Party The Scottish (Self-Government) Party was a Scottish nationalist political party formed in 1932 by a group of members of the Unionist Party who favoured the establishment of a Dominion Scottish Parliament within the British Empire. The Scottish ...

. His biographer George McKechnie wrote "His modern Scottish reputation is grounded almost exclusively on his obsessive campaigns against Irish Catholics."

Life

He was born in

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

on 2 August 1899 into a Presbyterian family, the eldest son of the journalist Charles Thomson and his wife Mary. His parents belonged to the

United Free Church The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; , ) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and the majority of the 19th-century Free Church of Scotland. The maj ...

. He attended Daniel Stewart's College from age 10, and was a student at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

from 1919 to 1922. In his final university year, he founded with another undergraduate, Roderick Watson Kerr, the

Porpoise Press George Blake (1893–1961) was a Scottish journalist, literary editor and novelist. His ''The Shipbuilders'' (1935) is considered a significant and influential effort to write about the Scottish industrial working class. "At a time when the idea of ...

. Kerr in 1922 went to work on ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'', and in 1926 moved to the ''

Liverpool Daily Post The ''Liverpool Post'' was a newspaper published by Reach plc, Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The newspaper and its website ceased publication on 19 December 2013. Until 13 January 2012 it was a daily morning newspaper, wi ...

''. The same year, following his marriage, Thomson moved to London to work as a journalist, and write books. His early books attracted the attention of

Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century ...

, and he joined

Beaverbrook Newspapers The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet in ...

in 1931. He acted as Principal Private Secretary to Beaverbrook, who was in government during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1990 Thomson was awarded an

for services to journalism. He died in June 1996, in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

Scottish nationalist

''Caledonia'' (1927) had dwelt on Irish immigration to Scotland, as did

Andrew Dewar Gibb Andrew Dewar Gibb MBE QC (13 February 1888 – 24 January 1974) was a Scottish advocate, barrister, professor and politician. He taught law at Edinburgh and Cambridge, and was Regius Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow 1934–1958. ...

's ''Scotland in Eclipse'' (1930), with the connected theme of

slum housing A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily in ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. The two authors described a perceived threat in the influence of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. At this time, the newly-joined United Free Church and

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

were leading a campaign against Irish-Scots Catholics, now seen as

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. Gibb and Thomson repeatedly denounced the same group. Their position has been described as a "strident, racially oriented nationalism which was politically to the far right and had quasi-fascist tendencies." The context, identified by Stewart J. Brown, was the "exclusivist racial nationalism" of Presbyterians, dating from the early 1920s and their distancing from the

UK Labour Party The Labour Party, often referred to as Labour, is a political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. The party has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade ...

, and associated with the

Church union in Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; , ) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and the majority of the 19th-century Free Church of Scotland. The maj ...

. In terms of party politics, 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 ...

, of the left, was first countered by the

set up in 1932, of the right, by Gibb and

James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose Commodore James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose, (1 May 1878 – 20 January 1954), styled Marquess of Graham until 1925, was a Scottish nobleman, naval officer, politician and engineer. He took the first film of a solar eclipse and is credited as ...

, with others. Then with the mediation of Thomson and

Neil Gunn Neil Miller Gunn (8 November 1891 – 15 January 1973) was a prolific Scottish novelist, critic, and dramatist who emerged as one of the leading lights of the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. With over twenty novels to his credi ...

, the two parties merged in 1934, to form the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

, with the exclusion of some radical nationalists. Electorally the

Scottish Protestant League The Scottish Protestant League (SPL) was a far-right political party in Scotland during the 1920s and 1930s. It was led by , who founded it in 1920. Creation and initial years The SPL was launched by Ratcliffe in Edinburgh on 28 September 1920 ...

peaked in Glasgow local government in 1933. Fascist ideology made no further advances in Scotland. Gibb and Thomson went on to found the

Saltire Society The Saltire Society is a membership organisation which aims to promote the understanding of the culture and heritage of Scotland, founded in 1936. The society organises lectures and publishes pamphlets, and presents a series of awards in the fiel ...

, concerned with Scottish culture and heritage, in 1936. For Thomson, 1935 and the publication of his book ''Scotland: That Distressed Area'' marked the end of his involvement in Scottish politics that had been pursued covertly. Lord Beaverbrook as his employer required him to sign an agreement that he would cease these activities.

Works

*''Caledonia: or the Future of the Scots'' (1927), in the '' To-day and To-morrow'' series. It provoked a reply, ''Albyn: or Scotland and the Future'' (1927) by C. M. Grieve. Both works met with criticism from the historians

Robert Rait Sir Robert Sangster Rait (10 February 1874 – 25 May 1936) was a Scottish historian, Historiographer Royal and Principal of the University of Glasgow. Early life Rait was born in 1874 in Narborough, Leicestershire to Scottish parents, altho ...

and George Smith Pryde (1899–1961). *''The Re-Discovery of Scotland'' (1928) *''Whisky'' (Porpoise Press, 1930), as Aeneas MacDonald, one of the Seven Men of Moidart *''Can the Scottish Church Survive?'' (1930), pamphlet *''The Kingdom of Scotland Restored'', undated pamphlet of 1930/1 *''Scotland: That Distressed Area'' (1935) *''The Twelve Days: 24 July to 4 August 1914'' (1964) *''The Robbers Passing By'' (1966) *''The Crime of Mary Stuart'' (1967) *''Vote of Censure'' (1968) *''Sir Francis Drake'' (1972) * ;Lord Castlerosse,His Life and Times(1973) *''The Prime Ministers: From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher'' (1980) *''The First Churchill: The Life of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough'' (1979) *''A Kind of Justice: two studies in treason'' (1970) *''The North-West Passage'' (1975) *''Warrior Prince: Prince Rupert of the Rhine'' (1975) *''The Ball at Glenkerran'' (1982) His play ''Moonlight Flitting'' was produced at London's

Whitehall Theatre Trafalgar Theatre is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. The Grade II listed building was built in 1930 with interiors in the Art Deco style as the Whitehall Theatre; it regularly staged ...

in 1938.

Family

Thomson married in 1926, in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Else Ellefsen (died 1957), whose portrait had been painted by Eric Robertson (1887–1941) of the Edinburgh Group. She translated (1923) ''The Plague in Bergamo'' by

Jens Peter Jacobsen Jens Peter Jacobsen (7 April 1847 – 30 April 1885) was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Br ...

for the Porpoise Press.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, George Malcolm 1899 births 1996 deaths Scottish journalists People from Leith Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire