Part I Introduction

Summary

AS THE NEW LAIRD of the 12,000-acre Gartmore Estate in southern Perthshire, Graham, whose family had a long history of radicalism and support for the Liberal Party, either applied, or was approached, to become a Liberal candidate in the upcoming general election of 1885. The Liberals had seemed like his natural home, and notwithstanding William Ewart Gladstone’s dominance of party and policies, he believed that they considered the interests of others more highly than their own, stating: ‘If this is the case, I am proud, and you all may be proud of belonging to that party, as, what higher morality is there in the world than to do to others as you would they should unto you.’

Despite going on to represent an industrial seat, it was from a distinctly rural tradition that Graham’s political potential would emerge. J. P. Cornford called it:

‘The charmed circle’ [which] existed to the extent at least that these men came from a hereditary ruling class, that they took for granted that they would play a pre-eminent part in politics, and that almost everyone else did too.

Graham’s attempt to become a Member of Parliament occurred during a period of political disarray for the Liberals, with major divisions within the party over landownership, church disestablishment, and Irish home rule. In addition, there were ongoing disputes over party structures and organisation, a growing sense of unease among moderates over the party’s future direction, and resistance to change from the party executive. Graham’s candidacy for an industrial seat would, however, have been particularly attractive to party managers (the ‘wire-pullers’), where any radical appeal would be more palatable coming from the lips of someone of his pedigree, on the basis that:

If a workman votes for a man with a carriage and pair it is because he believes that his views will be more adequately and effectively represented by him than his opponent, who may have to do his business on foot.

After declining to stand in another Glasgow seat, Graham was selected to stand in the constituency of Camlachie, a deprived area in the East End of the city.