John MacCormick

He began in politics as a member of the Glasgow University Labour Club[?], before deciding to form the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association (GUSNA) in 1927. He then helped to form the National Party of Scotland in 1928 before leading them into a merger with the Scottish Party in 1934 to found the modern Scottish National Party (SNP). He resigned from the party in 1942 following controversy over attitudes towards the war.

He was elected rector of the University of Glasgow in 1950 as GUNSA's candidate, serving until 1953. This association with GUSNA also saw the formation of a poltical freindship with a then young law student at Glasgow University, Ian Hamilton, who had run his campaign to be elected rector.

He was involved, along with Hamilton, in the mysterious affair surrounding the removal of the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950 and its return to Arbroath Abbey. He was also responsible for the constitutional challenge, again along with Hamilton, over Queen Elizabeth using the title the second, rather than the first, which of course she was in Scotland.

In the 1950s he formed the Scottish Covenant[?], a non-partizan political organisation which campaigned to secure the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly[?]. This covenant was hugely successful in securing support from across the political spectrum as well as in capturing the Scottish public's imagination (over 2 million signed a petition demanding the convocation of an Assembly). However, in the longrun it proved unsuccessful in establishing the Assembly MacCormick so craved, and it would not be until nearly 40 years after his death would Home Rule be secured.

His son Iain served as SNP Member of Parliament for Argyll from 1974 till 1979, and his second son Neil was Professor of Law and Vice-Principal of the University of Edinburgh and elected a SNP Member of the European Parliament in 1999.