12 Facts About William Adamson

William Adamson was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour Party politician.

William Adamson worked as a miner in Fife where he became involved with the National Union of Mineworkers.

Active with the new Labour Party, William Adamson was first elected to Parliament for West Fife in the December 1910 general election.

William Adamson's victory was the only Labour gain from the Liberals in that election.

William Adamson was elected Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party on 24 October 1917, a post he held until 1921.

William Adamson led the party into the general election of 1918, which saw Labour gain 15 seats and become the largest opposition party in the House of Commons for the first time; however, there remained uncertainty as to whether Adamson or the leader of the independent Liberals, Donald Maclean could claim to be the true leader of the opposition in the Commons.

In 1919, William Adamson was confident that the experience of the First World War would "produce a different atmosphere and an entirely different relationship amongst all sections of our people" and would act as a watershed in the process of social reform.

William Adamson served as Secretary for Scotland and Secretary of State for Scotland in 1924 and between 1929 and 1931 in the Labour governments of Ramsay MacDonald.

William Adamson lost his seat in the 1931 election which he contested for Labour against MacDonald's coalition.

William Adamson stood again in the 1935 election but again failed to take the seat, losing on this occasion to William Gallacher of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

William Adamson was married to Christina Myles Marshall, a factory worker, with whom he had two daughters and two sons; one of the latter was killed during the First World War.

William Adamson is buried in Dunfermline Cemetery, just north of the roundel at the end of the entrance avenue.