Dickson Mabon
Baroness Tweedsmuir | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Greenock and Port Glasgow Greenock (1955–74) | |
| In office 8 December 1955 – 13 May 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Hector McNeil |
| Succeeded by | Norman Godman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 November 1925 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 10 April 2008 (aged 82) Eastbourne, England |
| Political party | Labour (1948–81; 1991–2008) SDP (1981–88) Liberal Democrats (1988–91) |
| Spouse |
Elizabeth Zinn (m. 1970) |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
| Profession | Physician |
Jesse Dickson Mabon , and rejoined the Labour Party in 1991.
Early life
Mabon was born on 1 November 1925 in Glasgow, the son of Jesse Dickson Mabon, a butcher; and his wife, Isabel Simpson (née Montgomery). He was educated at Possilpark Primary School, Cumbrae Primary School and North Kelvinside Secondary School in Maryhill (now Cleveden Secondary School).
He worked as a
He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow after he was demobilised. Mabon was Chairman of the Glasgow University Labour Club (1948–50), then served as Chairman of the National Association of Labour Students in 1949–50, and finally as President of Glasgow University Union in 1951–52, and of the Scottish Union of Students, 1954–55.
In 1955, he won The Observer Mace, speaking with A. A. Kennedy and representing the University of Glasgow. In 1995, the competition was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace and is now run by the English-Speaking Union.
He was political columnist for the Scottish Daily Record from 1955 to 1964, and studied under Henry Kissinger at Harvard University in 1963. He was also a visiting physician at Manor House Hospital, London, 1958–64.
Parliamentary career
Mabon was the unsuccessful
He was a junior minister as joint Parliamentary
Mabon was also a Member of the
Following Labour's defeat in the
Mabon defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in October 1981. The party was founded by the so-called "Gang of Four" in March 1981, which consisted of right-wing Labour MPs discontented with the direction of the Labour Party at the time; but Mabon later called himself a founder member of the party. He unsuccessfully contested Renfrew West and Inverclyde for the SDP in 1983 after the local Liberals refused to stand their candidate down for him in his previous seat, and fought Renfrew West again for the SDP/Alliance in 1987, and also the Lothians seat in the 1984 election for the European Parliament. Mabon was one of the SDP's negotiators in their merger attempts with the Liberals, and joined the post-merger Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD; later the Liberal Democrats) upon its foundation. However, in October 1988 he failed to be elected to the SLD's national executive committee, and by 1991 he had rejoined Labour and subsequently became an enthusiastic supporter of Tony Blair's "New Labour" agenda.[2]
Later life
He was chairman of SOS Children's Villages UK until 1993 and tried to get an SOS Children's Village built in Scotland, first near Glasgow and then at Stirling.
He rejoined the Labour Party in 1991, and subsequently became a member of the executive committee of Eastbourne Constituency Labour Party until 2004.
Mabon, whose first directorship had been at Radio Clyde in the 1970s, added a non-executive directorship with East Midlands Electricity to his place at Cairn; in 1992 he urged John Major's government to privatise British Coal in two halves with one going to an East Midland-led consortium including himself. He kept up his interest in medicine, in 1990 becoming president of the Faculty of the History of Medicine. Mabon was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a Freeman of the City of London. From 1995 - 1996, he also served as the 74th President of the Faculty of Homeopathy.
Family
He married Elizabeth Zinn, an actress, in 1970. They had one son.
Death
Mabon died on 10 April 2008, aged 82, at his home in Eastbourne.[3] He was survived by his wife and their son.
References
- ^ Parkhouse, Geoffrey (15 June 1979). "Shore steps up as Owen is demoted". The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
- ^ "Kennedy tops poll for SLD executive", Daily Telegraph, 31 October 1988, p. 2.
- ^ "'Mr Oil', the minister who helped launch North Sea oil industry, dies aged 82", Daily Record, Daily Record, 11 April 2008