Dugald Macfadyen

Reverend
Dugald Macfadyen
Personal details
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Political partyLiberal
ProfessionClergyman

Reverend Dugald Macfadyen MA, FRHistS, (25 December 1867 – 23 July 1936), was a British Clergyman, Liberal Party candidate and writer.

Background

Macfadyen was born the son of John Allison Macfadyen and Elizabeth Anderson. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Merton College, Oxford and Mansfield College, Oxford. In 1894 he married Mary Olivia Goulty. They had one son and two daughters. She died in 1912. In 1915 he married Edith Barnett Bates.[1]

Political career

Macfadyen was First Secretary of the Council for Higher Education in North Staffordshire. He was a member of Hanley County Borough Education Committee. He was Chairman of the League of Nations Union, Letchworth Branch.[2] He was Liberal candidate for the Hitchin division of Hertfordshire at the 1923 General Election. This was a safe Unionist seat that no Liberal had won since 1906. In fact no Liberal had even run since 1911. It was however his local constituency. He did manage to capture nearly a quarter of the vote and nearly out-polled the socialist who had come second in 1922. In the 1924 General Election he again fought Hitchin, but in a bad year for the Liberals, his vote dropped. He was Liberal candidate for the Reading division of Berkshire at the 1929 General Election. No Liberal candidate had stood at the previous election and the last Liberal to contest the division came a poor third in 1923. The Liberals had not won reading since 1910 so this was not fertile territory. He finished third, matching the vote share of the 1923 Liberal candidate. He did not contest the 1931 General Election. He returned to the political fray as Liberal candidate in the 1934 Cambridge by-election. No Liberal had stood in 1931 and the last Liberal candidate in 1929 polled 25%, finishing third. The Liberals had not won Cambridge since 1906, so there could not have been much optimism about his prospects. He finished a poor third, polling just 7%. He did not contest the 1935 General Election.[3]

Electoral record

General Election 1923: Hitchin[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Guy Molesworth Kindersley 11,157 49.7 −12.3
Labour Benjamin Skene Mackay 5,913 26.3 −11.7
Liberal Dugald Macfadyen 5,390 24.0 n/a
Majority 5,244 23.4 −0.6
Turnout 67.7
Unionist hold Swing -0.3
General Election 1924: Hitchin[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Guy Molesworth Kindersley 14,019 59.2 +9.5
Labour Julian Athelstan Tayler 5,773 24.4 −1.9
Liberal Dugald MacFadyen 3,881 16.4 −7.6
Majority 8,246 34.8 +11.4
Turnout 69.5 +1.8
Unionist hold Swing +5.7
General Election 1929: Reading[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Somerville Hastings 23,281 43.5 −2.7
Unionist Herbert Geraint Williams 22,429 42.0 −11.8
Liberal Dugald Macfadyen 7,733 14.5 n/a
Majority 852 1.5 −6.1
Turnout 85.0 −0.8
Labour gain from Unionist Swing +4.5
1934 Cambridge by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Richard Lionel Tufnell 14,896 51.2 −22.0
Labour Alexander Wood 12,176 41.8 +15.0
Liberal Dugald Macfadyen 2,023 7.0 n/a
Majority 2,720 9.4 −37.0
Turnout 29,095 69.0 −6.6
Conservative hold Swing -18.5

Publications

  • Education: Methods and Ideas
  • Sir Ebenezer Howard and the Town Planning Movement, 1933
  • Alfred the West Saxon King of the English, 1901
  • Life and Letters of Alexander Mackennal, 1905
  • Story of Andrew Swan

He was also a contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica.[7]

References

  1. ^ ‘MACFADYEN, Rev. Dugald’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 23 Feb 2016
  2. ^ ‘MACFADYEN, Rev. Dugald’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 23 Feb 2016
  3. ^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
  4. ^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
  5. ^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
  6. ^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
  7. ^ ‘MACFADYEN, Rev. Dugald’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 23 Feb 2016