Joseph Westwood
Sir Donald Maclean | |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Archibald Maule Ramsay |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 February 1884 Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England |
| Died | 17 July 1948 (aged 64) Strathmiglo, Fife, Scotland |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse |
Frances Scarlett (m. 1906) |
| Children | 8 |
Joseph Westwood (11 February 1884 – 17 July 1948) was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1922 until his death, and served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1945 to 1947.
Background
Westwood was born in Stourbridge, but grew up in Fife.[1] He was educated at Buckhaven Higher Grade School, he worked as a draper's apprentice, messenger boy and miner.[1]
Politics
Westwood was an Industrial Organiser for Fife miners from 1916 to 1918 and a political organiser for Scottish Miners from 1918 to 1929.
Westwood was
His tenure as Secretary of State for Scotland has been considered as lacklustre. In the view of George Pottinger (a former civil servant who wrote a history of the Secretaries of State for Scotland from 1926 to 1976), Westwood was a chronically indecisive politician and concludes that "it is best to regard Westwood's time as an intermission."[2] In addition to his personal indecision, Westwood was disadvantaged by the fact that the Attlee ministry of which he was a Cabinet member was highly centralised in pursuing its objectives, and appeals that were specifically Scottish (or Welsh, or of a particular English region) were distrusted and generally disregarded by the Government. Consequently, Westwood struggled to secure Cabinet backing for specifically Scottish measures in a way that his recent predecessors, most notably Tom Johnston, did not.[3]
Personal life and death
In 1906, he married Frances Scarlett, and they had eight children. He and his wife died in a car accident in Strathmiglo, Fife, on 17 July 1948, and they were buried at Dysart Cemetery.[1]
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/61335. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Pottinger, p. 105.
- ^ Pottinger, p. 102.
- Pottinger, George, The Secretaries of State for Scotland, 1926-1976 (Scottish Academic Press, 1979), ISBN 0-7073-0230-7
- Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)
- Iain Dale, ed. (2003). The Times House of Commons 1929, 1931, 1935. Politico's (reprint). ISBN 1-84275-033-X.
- The Times House of Commons 1945. 1945.
External links
| Secretaries of State for Scotland 1707–1746 | .svg) | |
|---|---|---|
| Secretaries for Scotland 1885–1926 | ||
| Secretaries of State for Scotland (pre-devolution) 1926–1999 | ||
| Secretaries of State for Scotland (post-devolution) 1999–present | ||
