1. Donald Campbell Dewar was a Scottish statesman and politician who served as the inaugural first minister of Scotland and leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000.
71 Facts About Donald Dewar
1. 2.
Donald Dewar was widely regarded as the "Father of the Nation" during his tenure as first minister, and the "Architect of Devolution" whilst serving as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997 to 1999.
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Donald Dewar was Member of Parliament for Glasgow Anniesland from 1978 to 2000.
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Donald Dewar was re-elected in the 1978 Glasgow Garscadden by-election and served as the MP until his death in 2000.
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Donald Dewar led the Labour campaign through the first Scottish Parliament election and was elected a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Anniesland.
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Donald Dewar was elected as first minister on 13 May 1999, by a vote of the parliament, and formed the first Scottish Executive cabinet.
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On 10 October 2000, Donald Dewar sustained a fall, and the following day he died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 63 while still in office.
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Donald Dewar is known for his work and commitment to the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament and being the inaugural first minister of Scotland.
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Donald Campbell Dewar was born on Saturday, 21 August 1937 in Glasgow.
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Donald Dewar grew up in a middle-class household in Kelvingrove as the only child of Dr Alasdair Dewar, a consultant dermatologist, and Mary Howat Dewar.
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Donald Dewar attended a small school in the Scottish Borders during the Second World War.
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Donald Dewar made few friends at school and blamed his "shyness and gauche manner" on his experience as being an only child.
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In 1957, Donald Dewar attended the University of Glasgow where his father, mother, two uncles and aunt attended.
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Donald Dewar met several future politicians at the university Dialectic Society, including John Smith, who would later become leader of the Labour Party, Sir Menzies Campbell, who would later become leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Lord Irvine of Lairg, who would serve as Lord Chancellor.
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Donald Dewar met Alison McNair at Glasgow University, who he would later marry in 1964.
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Donald Dewar was an editor of the Glasgow University Guardian and sales manager for Glasgow University Magazine in 1960.
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Donald Dewar served as chairman of the University Labour Club from 1961 from 1962 and president of the Glasgow University Union.
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Donald Dewar was an Honorary Secretary of the Students' Representative Council.
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In 1961, Donald Dewar gained a Master of Arts degree in History and in 1964 a second-class Bachelor of Law degree.
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Donald Dewar was a member of the Labour Party, and soon turned his sights towards being elected to parliament.
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Donald Dewar's speech became his first political success: as the tax was repealed the following year.
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Donald Dewar was made a member of the public accounts committee and in October 1967, he was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the President of the Board of Trade, Anthony Crosland.
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Donald Dewar remained in that position at the Department of Education until 1969, in which year he opposed a visit to Aberdeen by the Springbok rugby team and staged a silent vigil near the team's ground.
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Donald Dewar lost his constituency seat to the Conservative candidate Iain Sproat at the 1970 general election by over 1,000 votes.
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Donald Dewar spent much of the 1970s looking for another parliamentary seat.
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Donald Dewar hosted a Friday evening talk show on Radio Clyde, and in June 1971 was beaten by Dennis Canavan when he applied for the seat of West Stirlingshire.
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Donald Dewar worked as a solicitor for much of that decade and became a reporter on children's panels and was involved with the Lanarkshire local authority.
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Donald Dewar became a partner in Ross Harper Murphy, in 1975.
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Donald Dewar was selected for the seat of Glasgow Garscadden by a majority of three, after Dewar's friend in the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, MP Willie Small, died unexpectedly.
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Donald Dewar was returned to parliament at a by-election on 13 April 1978, a crucial victory which was seen as halting the rise of the Scottish National Party.
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Donald Dewar gained a parliamentary platform as chairman of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.
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In 1981, as the Labour Party divided itself further due to internal disagreement, Donald Dewar was almost deselected in his constituency by hard left activists, but he successfully defended himself against this threat.
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Donald Dewar rose quickly through the ranks, becoming Shadow Scottish Secretary in November 1983.
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On 21 December 1988, Donald Dewar was in Lockerbie after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, as the member of the Shadow Cabinet in charge of Scottish affairs.
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In 1992, John Smith made him Shadow Social security Secretary and three years later, Donald Dewar was made a Chief Whip for the Labour Party by Tony Blair.
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Labour won this election by a landslide, and Donald Dewar was given the post of Secretary of State for Scotland.
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Donald Dewar was able to start the devolution process he dreamt of years earlier, and worked on creating the Scotland Act, popularly referred to as "Smith's unfinished business".
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The first elections to the Scottish Parliament were held on 6 May 1999, with Donald Dewar leading the Scottish Labour Party against their main opponents, the Scottish National Party led by Alex Salmond.
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Donald Dewar was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Anniesland, having the unusual distinction of being both an MP and MSP for the same constituency.
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On 13 May 1999, Donald Dewar was elected by the Scottish Parliament for the nominee for First Minister of Scotland, after receiving 71 votes by MSPs.
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On 13 May 1999, Donald Dewar was nominated as first minister, and was officially appointed by the Queen on 17 May at a ceremony in the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
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Donald Dewar later travelled to the Court of Session to be sworn in by the lord president and receive the Great Seal of Scotland.
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Donald Dewar made his initial appointments to the first Scottish cabinet in over 300 years in May 1999.
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Ahead of announcing his cabinet, Donald Dewar advocated that he had created his team in order to ensure the Scottish Labour and Scottish Liberal Democrat coalition would be an effective administration for Scotland.
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Some key appointments to Donald Dewar's cabinet included Jim Wallace as the deputy first minister and Minister for Justice, Henry McLeish was appointed as the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and Sam Galbraith who was appointed as the Minister for Health.
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Less than 24 hours after announcing his cabinet, Donald Dewar announced the eleven junior ministers of his cabinet.
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Ahead of forming the coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Donald Dewar was urged not to succumb to pressure to scrap tuition fees in Scotland, mostly by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and education secretary David Blunkett of the UK Government.
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On 23 March 2000, Donald Dewar presided over the launch of a consultation paper by his Minister for Justice, Jim Wallace, on stalking and harassment in Scotland.
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Donald Dewar supported an increase in spending available from the UK Government to be used by the Scottish Executive and had indicated that additional funds could be used to progress the executive's work on tackling poverty.
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Donald Dewar stated that the executive was committed to tackling the core root of the issues to be "sure that all our children have the best start in life" whilst advocating the role education and employment plays in social justice.
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Donald Dewar claimed that the introduction of quality child-care, the national minimum income guarantee for pensioners and the establishment of the "New Deal" had "laid the foundations" for an increase in employment in the country.
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Additionally, Donald Dewar was hopeful that strong numbers of 18 year olds in full time education would continue to increase under his premiership, stating that he wanted to "skill the workforce, not only to make the Scottish economy truly competitive but to provide opportunities for the individual".
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Around April 2000, Donald Dewar temporarily stepped back from his duties as first minister to allow him to undergo heart surgery.
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Additionally, Donald Dewar issued a public message of thanks to both the Scottish Parliament and cabinet colleagues for messages following his surgery.
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One of the first scandals to hit the new Scottish Parliament occurred when allegations that the lobbying arm of public relations company Beattie Media had privileged access to ministers were published, prompting Donald Dewar to ask the standards committee to investigate the reports.
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Donald Dewar threatened to sack any minister or aide who briefed the media against another member of the Scottish Executive, following public rows between Jack McConnell and Health Minister Susan Deacon over the budget allocated to health.
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Donald Dewar announced that independent consultants had been drafted in by the Scottish Executive to investigate the issue.
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On 20 July 1964, Donald Dewar married Alison Mary McNair, with whom he had two children: a daughter, Marion, and a son, Ian.
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In 1972, McNair separated from Donald Dewar and entered a relationship with the then Derry Irvine, a prominent Scottish barrister in London.
60.
In September 2009, Dennis Canavan said Donald Dewar reacted callously when Canavan's son was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1989.
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Donald Dewar was mad enough before but I shudder to think what he'll be like now.
62.
In early 2000, Donald Dewar was admitted to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary after tests at Stobhill Hospital highlighted "minor irregularity" in his heart.
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Donald Dewar was forced to take a three-month break and Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace took over as acting first minister.
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Donald Dewar dealt with the 2000 exam results controversy and the lorry drivers' strike, and attended the Labour Party conference in Brighton, but on 29 September 2000 he told the historian Tom Devine in Dublin that if he did not feel any better, he would have to reappraise the situation in a few months' time.
65.
On 10 October 2000, Donald Dewar sustained a seemingly harmless fall outside his official residence at Bute House following a meeting of the Scottish Cabinet.
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Donald Dewar seemed fine at first, but later that day suffered a massive brain haemorrhage which was possibly triggered by the anticoagulant medication he was taking following his heart surgery.
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At 7pm, five hours after his fall, Donald Dewar was admitted to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh after his condition rapidly deteriorated.
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Donald Dewar would have been horrified at a Diana-style out-pouring of synthetic grief at his untimely death.
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Donald Dewar's leadership prioritised semi-proportional representation for Scottish parliamentary elections.
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In keeping with his famously unkempt appearance, it showed Donald Dewar wearing a slightly crumpled jacket.
71.
Donald Dewar called the Old Royal High School on Calton Hill in Edinburgh a "nationalist shibboleth", mainly because it had been the proposed site of the Scottish Assembly in the 1979 referendum.