James Maxton

James Maxton
Member of Parliament
for Glasgow Bridgeton
In office
15 November 1922 – 23 July 1946
Preceded byAlexander MacCallum Scott
Succeeded byJames Carmichael
Personal details
Born(1885-06-22)22 June 1885
Pollokshaws, Glasgow, Scotland
Died23 July 1946(1946-07-23) (aged 61)
Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland[1]
Cause of deathCancer
Political partyLabour (until 1932)
ILP (1932–1946)
Spouses
Sarah McCallum
(m. 1919; died 1922)
Madeline Glasier
(m. 1935)
ChildrenJames

James Maxton (22 June 1885 – 23 July 1946) was a British left-wing politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party.[2] He was a pacifist who opposed both world wars. A prominent proponent of Home Rule for Scotland,[3][4] he is remembered as one of the leading figures of the Red Clydeside era. He broke with Ramsay MacDonald and the second minority Labour government, and became one of its most bitter critics. As the leader of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), he disaffiliated the ILP from the mainstream party in 1932. Afterwards, he became an independent dissident outside front-line politics.

  1. ^ "Maxton, James [Jimmy]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34957. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Peter Ackers; Alastair J. Reid (2016). Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain: Other Worlds of Labour in the Twentieth Century. Springer. p. 195. ISBN 9783319341620.
  3. ^ Knox, William (1987). James Maxton. Manchester University Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780719021527. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
  4. ^ "Letter from the Scottish Home Rule Association to James Maxton, 16 Nov 1922". Glasgow Digital Library. Centre for Digital Library Research, University of Strathclyde. Retrieved 10 October 2009.