- Robert Climie
Robert Climie (1868 –
3 October 1929 ) was a Scottishtrade union ist andLabour Party (UK) politician.Robert was born in
Kilmarnock, Scotland on January 4th 1868. He was the son ofbonnet weaver Mary McGarvie and underground collieryfireman , Robert Climie. He was educated at the local Board School and served his apprenticeship in engineering at the Britannia Works, were he continued to work as anjourneyman . Early in his career he became involved intrade union activity and joined theIndependent Labour Party (ILP). Despite previously being a Volunteer Sergeant in theRoyal Scots Fusiliers , when he became involved in socialist politics he opposed the Boer War and spoke out regularly against it at the ILP's outdoor meetings from 1899 - 1902. He was first elected as a local councillor for the ILP in 1905 and served for many years, with particular interest inpublic health and housing.As a nominee of
Ayrshire Trades Council, he was a member of theScottish Trades Union Congress ’s Parliamentary Committee from 1910 to 1918 and from 1920 to 1923, and was Secretary to the Committee in 1914.He was elected to Parliament at the 1923 general election as
Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock, having unsuccessfully contested the seat in 1922.He was narrowly defeated at the 1924 general election, but won the seat back again at the general election in May 1929. However, he was already in poor health by this time and he died in office later that year, aged 61. He was survived by his wife, Jeannie McIldowie Meikle, herself an active Labour Party worker, six sons and a daughter.
He was an excellent speaker and formidable debater. In an obituary in the Kilmarnock Standard, 1929, he is described as...
...a small man of medium build, with dark hair and moustache, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He was moderate in all things, always hard-working in the labour cause and a lifelong supporter of
Ramsay MacDonald . Climie was teetotal although never formally attached to thetemperance movement .In Kilmarnock, Scotland there is a street, "Climie Place" named in his memory.
References
*cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |authorlink= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 |origyear=1969 |edition= 3rd edition |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |id= ISBN 0-900178-06-X
* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/kcommons2.htm Historical list of MPs: K (part 2)]External links
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp65070&rNo=0&role=sit Photograph] at
National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom) * [http://www.gcal.ac.uk/archives/collections.html Papers of Robert Climie] at
Glasgow Caledonian University
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