Donald Crawford

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Donald Crawford (1837–1 January 1919) was a United Kingdom Liberal MP. He sat for the constituency of Lanarkshire North-East from 1885 to 1895.

In 1884 the Liberal President of the Local Government Board, Sir Charles Dilke, appointed Crawford to the Scottish Boundary Commission, which was responsible for the redrafting of constituency boundaries in the wake of the Third Reform Act. Crawford, at the time, was the political secretary to Sir John Balfour, then the Lord Advocate. Crawford, in addition, was the distant relative of Dilke's.[1] The Conservative Leader in the House of Commons, Sir Stafford Northcote, objected to Crawford's appointment on these grounds, noting that Crawford was "a keen Liberal with a thorough knowledge of Scotland."[2]

Crawford entered parliament the next year as a member for Lanarkshire North-East. This was a new constituency, created by the Boundary Commission's division of Lanarkshire North into two new constituencies (the other being Lanarkshire North-West).

Crawford was married to Virginia Crawford (1862–1948), although the marriage was brief and unhappy. In 1886 Crawford achieved much social and public notoriety when he sued her for divorce, and named Dilke as the correspondent. After a much publicized trial Crawford obtained a decree nisi and the marriage was dissolved. As for Dilke, the scandal wrecked a promising political career. Virginia Crawford would later convert to Roman Catholicism and join the Catholic Women's League.[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dilke's younger brother Ashton Dilke married Maye Mary, Crawford's wife's sister. Robin M. Gard, ‘Crawford , Virginia Mary (1862–1948)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  2. ^ Mary E. J. Chadwick (September, 1976). "The Role of Redistribution in the Making of the Third Reform Act". The Historical Journal 19 (3): 665–683. , 679.
  3. ^ Paula M. Kane (September, 1991). ""The Willing Captive of Home?": The English Catholic Women's League, 1906-1920". Church History 60 (3): 331–355. doi:10.2307/3167471. , 345
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
None		 Member for Lanarkshire North-East
1885–1895		 Succeeded by
John Colville