William Darling (politician)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Michael Clark Hutchison
Majority12,887 (35.03%)
Personal details
Born8 May 1885
AwardsMilitary Cross

Sir William Young Darling

British House of Commons for the Edinburgh South constituency from 1945 to 1957. He was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland
from 1942 to 1957.

Life

He was born in

Heriot-Watt College. The University of Edinburgh later awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD).[1]

In the

Mentioned in Dispatches. From 1920 to 1922 he served in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence. During this period, together with Hugh Pollard (1888–1966), he jointly printed the Weekly Summary: a synopsis of the war from a British perspective.[2] On leaving the army he became Director of the family drapers
firm.

He became a member of

Edinburgh Corporation in 1933 and was city treasurer from 1937 to 1940. He was Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1941 to 1944; National Government Candidate for West Lothian, 1937; and chairman, Scottish Council on Industry
, from 1942 to 1946.

He was appointed CBE in 1923 and knighted in 1943. In the

Air Raid Warden for Edinburgh from 1939 to 1941.[2]

He died on 4 February 1962. He is buried in Traquair Parish Churchyard.[3]

Publications

The first five books were published anonymously:

  • The Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller (1931)
  • Hades! The Ladies!: Being Extracts from the Diary of a Draper, Charles Cavers, Esquire late of Bond Street London West (1933)
  • The Old Mill: Being the Candid Chronicles of Penelope Potter (1934)
  • Down but Not Out: Being the True Story of Peter Gogg (1935)
  • The Bankrupt Bookseller Speaks Again (1938)

Published under his own name:

  • Why I Believe in God (1944)

Published under the pseudonym "Timoleon":

  • King's Cross to Waverley: A Discursive Diary Telling of Persons and Policies, Opinions and Occurrences in Days of War (1944)

Published under his own name:

  • You and Your Neighbour: A Presentation of Local Government (1945)
  • The Bankrupt Bookseller (omnibus edition) (1947)
  • A Book of Days: A Dictionary of Dates, a Chronology of Circumstance, the Face of Time (1951)
  • So it Looks to Me (1952) (autobiography)
  • A Westminster Lad (1955) (poems)

Family

He married Agnes Olive Simpson (1885–1962) in 1914.

He was the

great uncle of Alistair Darling,[4] an Edinburgh MP from 1987 to 2015 who held various ministerial and Cabinet posts in the Labour
government from 1997 to 2010.

Artistic recognition

His portrait (as Lord Provost of Edinburgh), by Herbert James Gunn is held by the City of Edinburgh Council.[5]

References

  1. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help
    )
  2. ^ a b "Capt William Darling". Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  3. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Detail of Sir William Young Darling memorial plaque (1100072)". Canmore. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  4. ^ "Edinburgh South West". Scottish Politics. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2006.
  5. ^ "Sir William Young Darling (1885–1962), Lord Provost of Edinburgh (1941–1944) | Art UK".

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South
19451957
Succeeded by