Gordon James McMaster 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.

Born in Johnstone

Johnstone

Johnstone is a town in the council area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.The town lies three miles west of neighbouring Paisley and twelve miles west of the centre of the city of Glasgow...

, Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...

, he was elected as Labour

Labour 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...

 Member of Parliament

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,...

 for Paisley South

Paisley South (UK Parliament constituency)

Paisley South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system....

 at a by-election

Paisley South by-election, 1990

The Paisley South by-election, 1990 was a parliamentary by-election held on 29 November 1990 for the British House of Commons constituency of Paisley South, in the town of Paisley, Scotland....

 in 1990, following the death of Norman Buchan

Norman Buchan

Norman Findlay Buchan was a Labour politician, who represented the West Renfrewshire seat from 1964 until 1983 and the Paisley South seat from 1983 to 1990....

, and retained the seat until his own death in 1997. McMaster had previously been leader of Renfrew District Council.

Career

McMaster campaigned for the rights of disabled people and against recreational drug use during his time in Parliament. He served as an opposition whip

Whip (politics)

A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...

.

Death

McMaster committed suicide on 28 July 1997. He had been robbed in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 shortly before his death. His suicide note

Suicide note

A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide....

 named neighbouring MP Tommy Graham as being responsible for smearing him over an alleged homosexual relationship. This was denied by Graham, who was suspended from the Labour Party and went on to sit as an Independent MP before retiring at the 2001 general election.

External links

• Obituary from The Scotsman