Edwin Scrymgeour

Edwin Scrymgeour was born in Dundee on 28th July 1866. He was educated at the West End Academy and later became actively involved in the Temperance Movement. In November 1901, he established the Scottish Prohibition Party. He employed the trade unionist, Bob Stewart, as the party's full-time organiser on a wage of 27 shillings a week. One of his tasks was to edit the newspaper, The Prohibitionist.

Scrymgeour was eventually elected to Dundee Town Council. In 1908 he was joined on the council by Stewart. In his autobiography, Breaking the Fetters (1967), Stewart reported: "We certainly enlivened the Council meetings. The first night I took my seat we were both suspended for being offenders against decorum".

Later that year Winston Churchill stood at a by-election in Dundee. Scrymgeour stood as a representative of the Scottish Prohibition Party. At one meeting he said: "I feel deeply grateful to the Almighty God that has enabled the Prohibition Party to put me forward as the first British Prohibition candidate and look forward to another day when success will attend our efforts."

Despite the best efforts of Bob Stewart, who worked as his agent, he won only 655 votes. Stewart admitted "Scrymgeour and I had many differences in the election campaign. He dwelt too much on religion. He had a great advantage over all the other candidates because he had a mandate from God."

Stewart left the Scottish Prohibition Party in 1909 because he "could no longer stomach the religious prattlings of Scrymgeour and some of his adherents." Stewart and some of his left-wing friends now formed the Prohibition and Reform Party. Apart from the aim of achieving the complete National Prohibition its aims included: "The abolition of private ownership of the land and the means of manufacture, production and exchange, and the substitution of public of social ownership without compensation."

Scrymgeour retained the support of the trade union movement in Dundee and in the 1922 General Election, the Labour Party only supplied one candidate in the two-seat constituency. In this way Scrymgeour and Labour candidate E. D. Morel jointly ousted Winston Churchill. Scrymgeour therefore became the first MP to be elected for a prohibition party. Churchill's well-known opposition to the women's suffrage movement was a major factor in his defeat.

Scrymgeour was re-elected in the 1929 General Election with with 50,073 votes. Bottom of the poll was Bob Stewart who represented the Communist Party of Great Britain. He lost his seat in the 1931 General Election election, finishing in 4th place with 32,229 votes.

After leaving parliament Scrymgeour worked as an evangelical Chaplain at East House and Maryfield Hospital in Dundee.

Edwin Scrymgeour died on 1st February 1947.

Primary Sources

(1) Bob Stewart, Breaking the Fetters (1967)

Scrymgeour and I had many differences in the election campaign. He dwelt too much on religion. He had a great advantage over all the other candidates because he had a mandate from God. His speech to the crowd after the announcement of the result was really heavenly: "I feel deeply grateful to the Almighty God that has enabled the Prohibition Party to put me forward as the first British Prohibition candidate and look forward to another day when success will attend our efforts." That speech was the beginning of the break in the Prohibition Party...

A year or so after the election the inevitable split came in the Prohibition Party. I could no longer stomach the religious prattlings of Scrymgeour and some of his adherents. A number of us broke away and formed the Prohibition and Reform Party.