Sam Galbraith

Samuel Laird "Sam" Galbraith (born 18 October 1945) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. He is a former Member of Parliament and a former Member of the Scottish Parliament.

Galbraith was born in Clitheroe, Lancashire. He attended Greenock High School and then Glasgow University, where he received honours in medicine. He is married, the father of three daughters. In prior years he was an avid mountaineer and a Boy Scout.

At the 1987 general election, he was returned as Member of Parliament for the Strathkelvin and Bearsden constituency,^[1] and held the seat until standing down at the 2001 general election. He announced his resignation on 20 March 2001 due to reasons of health.^[2]

Galbraith served as Minister for Children and Education in the Scottish Executive under Donald Dewar from 1999 to 2000 and then, following the SQA exams controversy which was primarily his fault, as Minister for Environment, Sport and Culture under Henry McLeish until his resignation on 20 March 2001 from ministerial office and his parliamentary seats for health reasons. He had previously been a Scottish Office Minister between 1997 and 1999, and before that had been a respected neurosurgeon.

Galbraith received a lung transplant, in 1990, due to fibrosing alveolitis^[3] (the same condition which took the life of a sister).^[4]

Since 2006 he has been an energetic chairman ( as a Google search will show) of the Scottish Maritime Museum with facilities at Irvine, North Ayrshire and Dumbarton.^[5]

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