Thomas Murray Elder, Baron Elder, known as Murray Elder, (born 9 May 1950) is a British politician for Labour.
Elder was educated at the Kirkcaldy High School and graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master of Arts in economic history. He was a childhood friend of Gordon Brown.[1]
From 1972 to 1980, Elder worked for the Bank of England. He was special adviser to Donald Dewar and the Scottish Office. From 1984 to 1992, he was member of the Scottish Labour Party, since 1988 General Secretary. After this Elder became Chief of Staff to the Member of Parliament John Smith, a post he held until 1994.
He was created a life peer as Baron Elder, of Kirkcaldy in Fife on 19 July 1999.[2]
He is the third Westminster parliamentarian, after Chris Smith and Alan Haworth, to have climbed all the Munros, the Scottish 3000 ft hills. He completed his round of the 284 peaks with an ascent of Beinn Sgritheall on 9 June 2007, and is no.3897 in the Scottish Mountaineering Club's list of Munroists.[3]
Lord Elder is the Chancellor of Al-Maktoum Institute, a post graduate research led higher education Institute based in Dundee, Scotland.[4]