Dickson Mabon
Encyclopedia
Dr. Jesse Dickson "Dick" Mabon PC
FRSA (1 November 1925 – 10 April 2008) was a Scottish
politician, physician and company director. He was the founder of The Manifesto Group
of Labour MPs, an alliance of moderate MPs against the perceived leftward drift of the Labour Party in the 1970s. He was a Labour Co-operative
MP
until October 1981, when he joined the Social Democratic Party
. He left Parliament in 1983, and rejoined the Labour Party in 1991.
, the son of Jesse Dickson Mabon, a butcher, and his wife, Isabel Simpson (née Montgomery). He was educated at Possilpark primary school, Cumbrae primary school and North Kelvinside Academy. He worked as a Bevin Boy
in the coal mining
industry in Lanarkshire
during the Second World War, before Army service (1944–48).
He studied medicine at Glasgow University after he was demobilised. He was chairman of the Labour Club
(1948–50), then chairman of the National Association of Labour Students
in 1949-1950, and finally president of Glasgow University Union
in 1951–52, and of the Scottish Union of Students
, 1954–55.
In 1955, he won The Observer
Mace, speaking with A. A. Kennedy and representing Glasgow University. In 1995, the competition was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace
and is now run by the English-Speaking Union
.
He was political columnist for the Scottish Daily Record
from 1955 to 1964, and studied under Dr Kissinger
at Harvard University
in 1963. He was also a visiting physician at Manor House Hospital, London, 1958–64.
candidate for Bute and North Ayrshire in 1951, and Labour Co-operative
candidate for Renfrewshire West
in 1955. He was elected as Labour Co-operative member of parliament for Greenock
at a by-election
in December 1955, replacing Tony Benn
as Labour's youngest MP. He held that seat (from 1974 Greenock and Port Glasgow
) until 1983. He became a frontbench spokesman on health in 1962.
He was a junior minister as joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
(1964–67) and as promoted to Minister of State for Scotland, 1967–70. After Labour lost the 1970 general election
, he became Deputy Opposition Spokesman on Scotland, but resigned in April 1972 over Labour's attitude to the Common Market. Although he supported Roy Jenkins
in the election for a new leader of the Labour party in 1976, Jim Callaghan appointed him as Minister of State
in the Department of Energy
(1976–79), where he took charge of North Sea oil
. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor
in 1977.
He was also a Member of the Council of Europe
and of the Assembly of the Western European Union
, 1970–72 and 1974–76, and of the North Atlantic Assembly, 1980–82. He was Chairman of the European Movement
, 1975–76 (and deputy Chairman, 1979–83), and Founder Chairman of the Manifesto Group in the Parliamentary Labour Party (1974–76), set up to counter the left-wing Tribune group.
He became a member of the Social Democratic Party
in October 1981. The party was founded by the Gang of Four in March 1981, but Mabon later called himself a founder member of the party. He unsuccessfully contested Renfrew West and Inverclyde
for the SDP in 1983 after the local Liberals refused to stand their candidate down for him in his previous seat, and fought Renfrew West again for the SDP/Alliance in 1987
, and also the Lothians
seat in the 1984 election for the European Parliament
.
until 1993 and tried to get an SOS Children's Village built in Scotland first near Glasgow and then at Stirling; he was foiled by local councils who did not want the stigma of charitable help.
He rejoined the Labour Party in 1991, and subsequently became a member of the executive committee of Eastbourne Labour Party until 2004.
Mabon, whose first directorship had been at Radio Clyde in the 1970s, added a non-executive directorship with East Midlands Electricity to his place at Cairn; in 1992 he urged John Major's government to privatise British Coal in two halves with one going to an East Midland-led consortium including himself. He kept up his interest in medicine, in 1990 becoming president of the Faculty of the History of Medicine. Mabon was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
(FRSA) and a Freeman of the City of London.
He was survived by his wife and their son.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
FRSA (1 November 1925 – 10 April 2008) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
politician, physician and company director. He was the founder of The Manifesto Group
The Manifesto Group
The Manifesto Group of Labour MPs was a Parliamentary alliance of British Labour MPs led by Dr. Jesse Dickson Mabon , who were opposed to what they perceived to be the leftward drift of the Labour Party in the 1970s.-History:In 1974, the hard-left Labour MP Ian Mikardo was elected as chairman of...
of Labour MPs, an alliance of moderate MPs against the perceived leftward drift of the Labour Party in the 1970s. He was a Labour Co-operative
Labour Co-operative
Labour and Co-operative describes those candidates in British elections standing on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party, based on a national agreement between the two parties....
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
until October 1981, when he joined the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
. He left Parliament in 1983, and rejoined the Labour Party in 1991.
Early life
Mabon was born in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, the son of Jesse Dickson Mabon, a butcher, and his wife, Isabel Simpson (née Montgomery). He was educated at Possilpark primary school, Cumbrae primary school and North Kelvinside Academy. He worked as a Bevin Boy
Bevin Boys
Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until 1948. Chosen at random from conscripts but also including volunteers, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the mines, many of them...
in the coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
industry in Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
during the Second World War, before Army service (1944–48).
He studied medicine at Glasgow University after he was demobilised. He was chairman of the Labour Club
Glasgow University Labour Club
Glasgow University Labour Club was formed in 1946, and has served as a training ground for a number of prominent Labour politicians of the twentieth century. Membership is open to all matriculated students of the University....
(1948–50), then chairman of the National Association of Labour Students
Labour Students
Labour Students is a student organisation affiliated to the British Labour Party.Membership comprises affiliated college and university clubs . Membership of Labour Students is through membership of a university or college Labour Club. Affiliation is open to any Labour Club generally supportive of...
in 1949-1950, and finally president of Glasgow University Union
Glasgow University Union
Glasgow University Union is one of the largest and oldest students' unions in the UK, serving students and alumni of the University of Glasgow since 1885....
in 1951–52, and of the Scottish Union of Students
National Union of Students Scotland
The National Union of Students Scotland is an autonomous body within the National Union of Students. It is the national representative body of 530,000 students studying in further and higher education in Scotland and was formed following the merger of NUS in Scotland with the Scottish Union of...
, 1954–55.
In 1955, he won The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
Mace, speaking with A. A. Kennedy and representing Glasgow University. In 1995, the competition was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace
John Smith Memorial Mace
The John Smith Memorial Mace is an annual debating tournament contested by universities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales....
and is now run by the English-Speaking Union
English-Speaking Union
The English-Speaking Union is an international educational charity which was founded by the journalist Evelyn Wrench in 1918. The ESU aims to "bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures," by building skills and confidence in communication, such that individuals realize...
.
He was political columnist for the Scottish Daily Record
Daily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
from 1955 to 1964, and studied under Dr Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1963. He was also a visiting physician at Manor House Hospital, London, 1958–64.
Parliamentary career
Mabon was the unsuccessful LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
candidate for Bute and North Ayrshire in 1951, and Labour Co-operative
Labour Co-operative
Labour and Co-operative describes those candidates in British elections standing on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party, based on a national agreement between the two parties....
candidate for Renfrewshire West
Renfrewshire West (UK Parliament constituency)
West Renfrewshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983 and again from 1997 until 2005...
in 1955. He was elected as Labour Co-operative member of parliament for Greenock
Greenock (UK Parliament constituency)
Greenock was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 until 1974, when it was abolished and its area was merged into the new Greenock and Port Glasgow constituency.- Members of Parliament :...
at a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
in December 1955, replacing Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
as Labour's youngest MP. He held that seat (from 1974 Greenock and Port Glasgow
Greenock (UK Parliament constituency)
Greenock was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 until 1974, when it was abolished and its area was merged into the new Greenock and Port Glasgow constituency.- Members of Parliament :...
) until 1983. He became a frontbench spokesman on health in 1962.
He was a junior minister as joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland is a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, supporting the Secretary of State for Scotland...
(1964–67) and as promoted to Minister of State for Scotland, 1967–70. After Labour lost the 1970 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
, he became Deputy Opposition Spokesman on Scotland, but resigned in April 1972 over Labour's attitude to the Common Market. Although he supported Roy Jenkins
Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
in the election for a new leader of the Labour party in 1976, Jim Callaghan appointed him as Minister of State
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...
in the Department of Energy
Department of Energy (United Kingdom)
The Department of Energy was a department of the United Kingdom Government. The Department was established in January 1974, when the responsibility for energy production was transferred away from the Department of Trade and Industry in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis and with the importance of...
(1976–79), where he took charge of North Sea oil
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in 1977.
He was also a Member of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
and of the Assembly of the Western European Union
Western European Union
The Western European Union was an international organisation tasked with implementing the Modified Treaty of Brussels , an amended version of the original 1948 Treaty of Brussels...
, 1970–72 and 1974–76, and of the North Atlantic Assembly, 1980–82. He was Chairman of the European Movement
European Movement
The European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it.-History:...
, 1975–76 (and deputy Chairman, 1979–83), and Founder Chairman of the Manifesto Group in the Parliamentary Labour Party (1974–76), set up to counter the left-wing Tribune group.
He became a member of the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
in October 1981. The party was founded by the Gang of Four in March 1981, but Mabon later called himself a founder member of the party. He unsuccessfully contested Renfrew West and Inverclyde
Renfrew West and Inverclyde (UK Parliament constituency)
Renfrewshire West and Inverclyde was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997.The constituency was created out of, and merged back into, the West Renfrewshire constituency.-Members of Parliament:...
for the SDP in 1983 after the local Liberals refused to stand their candidate down for him in his previous seat, and fought Renfrew West again for the SDP/Alliance in 1987
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
, and also the Lothians
Lothians (European Parliament constituency)
Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...
seat in the 1984 election for the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
Later life
He was chairman of SOS Children's Villages UKSOS Children's Villages UK
SOS Children's Villages UK is an autonomous charity based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom and part of the international group SOS Children's Villages, the largest international charity group dedicated to the care of orphaned and abandoned children...
until 1993 and tried to get an SOS Children's Village built in Scotland first near Glasgow and then at Stirling; he was foiled by local councils who did not want the stigma of charitable help.
He rejoined the Labour Party in 1991, and subsequently became a member of the executive committee of Eastbourne Labour Party until 2004.
Mabon, whose first directorship had been at Radio Clyde in the 1970s, added a non-executive directorship with East Midlands Electricity to his place at Cairn; in 1992 he urged John Major's government to privatise British Coal in two halves with one going to an East Midland-led consortium including himself. He kept up his interest in medicine, in 1990 becoming president of the Faculty of the History of Medicine. Mabon was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
(FRSA) and a Freeman of the City of London.
Death
Mabon died, aged 82, at his home in EastbourneEastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
He was survived by his wife and their son.