Hamish Watt

Hamish Watt (27 December 1925 – 12 April 2014^[1][2][3]) was a Scottish politician, farmer and writer. The son of William Watt and Caroline Allan, he was educated at Keith Grammar School and at the University of St Andrews, and was involved in dairy and sheep farming and other business interests.

He contested Caithness and Sutherland as the Conservative candidate in 1966. He then switched to the Scottish National Party (SNP), contesting Banffshire in 1970. He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Banffshire seat in the Feb 1974 general election, holding it until the 1979 election.^[4] After a boundary change, he was unsuccessful SNP candidate for Moray in 1983. He was later a Regional and District Councillor with Moray District Council and Grampian Regional Council from 1985–90 (including serving as Chairman of the Grampian Education Committee from 1986–90). He was Rector of the University of Aberdeen from 1985–88, and was awarded an honorary LLD by the University in 1988. Latterly he was a newspaper columnist, after-dinner speaker and author.

His daughter Maureen Watt became an MSP in 2006,^[5] and his grandson Stuart Donaldson (Maureen's son) was elected in 2015 as the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.^[6]

He was parodied as "Hamish Banff" in the 7:84 theatre company's play Little Red Hen.

References

1. Death notice, Press and Journal, 14 April 2014
2. Obituary, The Telegraph, 14 April 2014.
3. Obituary, The Herald, 16 April 2014.
4. "Thatcher takes over No 10". The Guardian. 4 May 1979. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
5. Gray, Louise (20 April 2006). "Quine taks Doric fecht to Holyrood". The Scotsman (Johnston Press). Retrieved 13 January 2015.
6. "Election 2015: Who are the 56 new SNP MPs?". BBC News. BBC. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hamish Watt