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Douglas Crawford | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament forPerth and East Perthshire | |
| In office 10 October 1974 – 7 April 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Ian MacArthur |
| Succeeded by | Bill Walker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 November 1939 (1939-11) |
| Died | 17 April 2002 (aged 62) Campbeltown,Scotland,United Kingdom |
| Political party | Scottish National Party (SNP) |
George Douglas Crawford (1 November 1939 – 17 April 2002) was a Scottish politician and journalist who served asMember of Parliament (MP) forPerth and East Perthshire from1974 to1979.
Crawford was educated atGlasgow Academy andSt Catharine's College, Cambridge, before working as a journalist inLondon.[1] He was an Industrial Correspondent for theGlasgow Herald newspaper from 1963 to 1966, and then worked as Head of Publications for theScottish Council for Development and Industry.
A convinced believer in the benefits ofScottish independence, he worked unofficially as an adviser and researcher toWinnie Ewing whilst she was the soleScottish National Party parliamentarian from 1967 till 1970. He also served as SNP Director of Communications in the late 1960s before becoming a Vice-Chairman of the party in the early 1970s.
He was elected asMember of Parliament (MP) forPerth and East Perthshire at theOctober 1974 election as the party increased its number of representatives from 7 to 11. Elected with a majority of 793, he was given the financial portfolio in the SNP Parliamentary grouping, but lost his seat at the1979 general election along with 8 of his colleagues. Although he garnered only 287 fewer votes than he had when he was elected, theConservatives increased their vote by 3,609 to leave Crawford trailing by 3,103 votes.
Not long after his defeat he suffered acerebral haemorrhage from which he recovered to contest thePerth and Kinross constituency in the1983 election, but lost toNicholas Fairbairn, the Conservative incumbent MP, who won with a 6,733 majority.
Crawford died in 2002 inCampbeltown.[1] He married (and later divorced) journalistJoan Burnie, with whom he had two children. His son, Ewan, at one stage worked for former SNP leaderJohn Swinney.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPerth & East Perthshire October 1974 –1979 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Scottish National Party Vice Chair (Publicity) 1974–1975 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
