Willie Hamilton MP

West Fife 1950 – 1987

Willie Hamilton became the MP for West Fife through a series of coincidences. At the start of the Second World War he was a conscientious objector and in 1940 he attended the National Council of Labour Colleges summer school in North Wales also in attendance were (6) people from Kelty Labour Party. Young Bill, he was only 23 years old, made a very favourable impression and they would remember him.

Shortly after the Summer School Bill Hamilton came to believe that Fascism could only be stopped by force of arms and he consequently joined the Army serving in the Middle East where he was involved with the famous soldiers “Cairo Parliament”. At the end of the War he had reached the rank of Captain and like many exservicemen he was keen to stand for Parliament. He had been a Labour Party member since the age of 19.

In West Fife the Communist Party had been in the ascendancy but Labour was beginning to regain lost support. In 1945 many potential Labour candidates were fearful of taking on Willie Gallagher and the Communist Party rightly expecting to be vilified. The 28 year old Captain W. W. Hamilton was willing to fight for Labour and although unsuccessful in 1945 it was clear that the mass support for the CP was slipping away, enabling him to win the seat in the 1950 General Election.

Willie Hamilton represented the constituency for 37 years, many people wrongly assumed that he was on the left of Party because throughout his time in Parliament he was a fierce critic of the Royal Family. He never achieved any ministerial office and he was convinced that his anti-Royal stand kept him from office.

One of his party activist, described Willie Hamilton as more respected than loved but to be fair Bill was from a different political era. In the 50’s 60’s and 70’s MP’s did not have the allowances to support a constituency office and it was not unusual for an MP to live in London. Another MP the Tory Duncan Sands famously replied to criticism that he seldom visited his Streatham constituency that “ he was elected to represent Streatham in Westminster not Westminster in Streatham”. Changes to the West Fife boundary had taken out Kelty and the west Fife villages and Willie Hamilton came close to being deselected in 1983 but he survived.

Willie Hamilton retired in 1987 still held in great regard by his constituents and his Party.

( Willie did stand for Parliament in 1987 in a safe Tory seat but this was not a serious attempt to return to Parliament it was more to do with MP’s pension arrangements.)