Edwin Scrymgeour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edwin Scrymgeour, usually known as Neddy Scrymgeour (28 July 1866 – 1 February 1947), was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee, Scotland. He is the only person ever elected to the House of Commons on a prohibitionist ticket as the candidate of the Scottish Prohibition Party.

Scrymgeour was a native Dundonian educated at West End Academy. He was a pioneer of the Scottish temperance movement and established his party in November 1901 to further this aim. He served on Dundee City Council and began contesting elections in the 1908 Dundee by election which saw Winston Churchill first elected for Dundee and continued to fight at every election thereafter, increasing his vote. In part this was because of his popularity, general left-wing sympathies and history with the labour movement. Additionally Churchills stance against Suffragettes may have had an impact in a city where many women were breadwinners while the men were often "Kettle Boilers"

In the 1922 election, Scrymgeour and Labour candidate E. D. Morel jointly ousted Winston Churchill, who had represented the city as a Liberal (at that point Coalition Liberal). Scrymgeour remained an M.P. for Dundee until the 1931 general election when he lost his seat to Florence Horsbrugh. Out of Parliament Scrymgeour worked as an evangelical Chaplain at East House and Maryfield Hospitals in Dundee. Scrymgeour was a leader of the unsuccessful opponents of disbanding the Scottish Prohibition Party in January 1935.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Winston Churchill Alexander Wilkie	Member of Parliament for Dundee 2-seat constituency (with E. D. Morel 1922–1924 Thomas Johnston 1924–1929 Michael Marcus (1929–1931) 1922–1931	Succeeded by Dingle Foot Florence Horsbrugh