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More of a prompt to myself than anything, but in the early-middle 19th century, the old Calton burgh area was actually an exclave of South Leith Parish.
These lands had been progressively incorporated into the Burgh of the City by successive "Police Acts" in the 18th and 19th c. Policing at that time was not just about the law, in those days that also entailed street lighting, road maintenance and cleansing and public sanitation
The Burgh of Edinburgh had a fairly aggressive expansionist policy at this time as it sought to expand beyond its medieval constraints and bring the lands around it (much of which historically part of South Leith) within its jurisdiction, but things moved slower regards parishes
This resulted in a mess of overlapping civil and parish boundaries (and the latter split into both ecclesiastical and civil parishes), with exclaves and enclaves all over the place.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=13&lat=55.95272&lon=-3.19909&layers=78124226&b=1 This beautiful W & A. K. Johnston Map of 1885 goes some way to trying to cleverly explain the changes over time
For instance there was another weird little exclave of South Leith School Board around Jock's Lodge, resulting in "South Leith Landward School". Landward was a Scots language term for a rural part of a parish detached from the town or burgh.
And until the late 1880s, the Coal Hill area of Leith was part of the ancient parish of North Leith, not South Leith. The two had always been separate jurisdictions, with the former much more under the thumb of Edinburgh than the more independently minded latter.
Most of these boundary changes were to the benefit of Edinburgh at the expense of Leith, but there was an odd reversal in 1856, when lands put under the thumb of Edinburgh in an 1832 Police Act were returned to Leith to align the civil and parliamentary boundaries
So from 1832-1856, the municipal boundary of Leith did not extend north of Great Junction / Duke Streets, or west of Lochend Road (even though the Leith Burghs parliamentary boundary - which included Portobello and Musselburgh) did!).
Another fact new to me; from 1918-1927, the MP for Leith was the Liberal William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate.
He resigned from the Liberals and the seat in 1927 and was elected for Labour in Aberdeen in 1928.
He had a son called Anthony and a grandson called Hilary.
He resigned from the Liberals and the seat in 1927 and was elected for Labour in Aberdeen in 1928.
He had a son called Anthony and a grandson called Hilary.
WWB was a military aviator in WW1 and, with Canadian ace "Billy" Barker, flew the first ever recorded parachute drop of an agent behind enemy lines in 1918, when Alessandro Tandura was dropped in the vicinity of the Piave river.
Despite his age, he signed up again for the RAF during WW2 and undertook both active and administrative roles. In 1944, despite being a senior rank and aged 67, he flew active missions as an air gunner, probably the oldest ever person ever to have done this in the RAF
From the by-election in 1927 until 1945, the MP for Leith was Ernest Brown, at first for the Liberals and from 1931 the National Liberals. Brown was leader of the National Liberals from 40-45 also.
From 1932-35, Brown was cabinet Secretary for Mines and from 1935-40 was the Minister for Health in the governments of Stanley Baldwin and then Neville Chamberlain.
*Labour, not Health there.
Churchill made Brown Secretary of State for Scotland in 1940, which was seen as unusual then as Brown was actually an Englishman, despite serving a Scottish constituency.
Churchill made Brown Secretary of State for Scotland in 1940, which was seen as unusual then as Brown was actually an Englishman, despite serving a Scottish constituency.
In 1941 he moved on to Health, a post held until 1943. Was Duchy of Lancaster until 1945 and then briefly Minister for Aircraft Production before losing his seat to Labour's James Hoy at the General Election and retiring.
Brown was noted for being both a very loud and fast speaker. The story goes that when Stanley Baldwin was resident in Downing St. he was startled by shouting in the house. When informed that it was Brown "talking to Scotland", Baldwin said "Why doesn't he use the telephone?"
James Hoy served as MP for Leith until 1970 (photo by Walter Bird, NPG x168455, © National Portrait Gallery, London) when he was replaced by Labour's Ronald King Murray
Ronald Murray, was an advocate by profession and stood down from parliament in 1979 when he became a Senator of the College of Justice for the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary as Lord Murray. He was replaced by another Ronald and Brown; Ron Brown.
The ever controversial Ron Brown served Leith until 1992. This meant that in the 74 years from 1918, Leith had just 5 MPs; A Liberal Ben, a Liberal Brown, a Labour Hoy, a Labour Murray and a Labour Brown.
"Red Ron" (who had a good sideboard) was arrested for a Breach of the Peace in 1982 for obstructing Margaret Thatcher when she visited Glasgow and attempted (unsuccessfully) to use his court appearance to have her put in the witness box. Brown was found guilty and fined £50.
In response, he wrote to the Lord Advocate (the Conservative Baron Mackay of Clashfern) to demand he "take steps to ensure that English residents – including ministers – turn up in Scots courts when required."
Brown is best known for seizing the House of Commons mace in 1988 during a debate and dropping it, causing £1,500 in damage. He paid for the damage but provoked outrage in the house; his party suspended the whip for 3 months. Sadly the days before cameras were in the chamber.
Brown's response was typically full of rhetoric; "If that bauble or ornament is more important than all the struggle, there is something wrong with this party." He also implied that the people of Leith could have mended the mace better and for less.
Brown's popular credentials were further cemented by his appearance in a TV advert for a Bananarama "Best of" album where he appeared playing air guitar on a commons mace...
Ben Macintyre claims that the KGB tried to recruit Brown in the 1980s owing to his socialist credentials and outspoke support for the Eastern Bloc but that his "accent was too Scottish for Moscow". But that sounds like lazy drivel based on Scottish stereotypes.
*Of course* a Cambridge-educated Times journalist would write that all the might of the Soviet intelligence machine would be defeated simply by a central belt accent.
Brown fell from grace in 1989 when he was charged by police with theft and damage to the flat of his former mistress in Sussex. The theft included 2 pairs of women's underpants, to the delight of headline writers.
His local party had had enough of the controversy and the affront caused to his wife and he would be deselected and replaced for Labour by Malcolm Chisholm at the 1992 election. He stood against Chisholm as an independent Labour candidate but lost heavily.
Leith would be abolished as a discrete Westminster constituency for the 1997 election, replaced by Edinburgh North & Leith, which was held by Malcolm Chisholm and then Mark Lazarowicz until 2015 when Deidre Brock ended 70 years of a safe Labour seat.
The act of creating Edinburgh North & Leith finally brought Calton Hill and Leith back together in a government division, so we're neatly back where we started this thread.
