Farmer and politician
Born: January 10, 1927;
Died: June 29, 2017


James DAVIDSON, who has died aged 90, was an old-school Liberal MP concerned with farming, Highland development and “Home Rule” for Scotland


As the MP for West Aberdeenshire, he was ahead of his time in introducing a Private Member’s Bill – the Scotland and Wales (Referenda) Bill – to conduct plebiscites in Scotland and Wales to gauge the public mood on constitutional reform. 


While his bill fell at its Second Reading in February 1969, it received strong support from the Scotsman newspaper and helped the Scottish Liberal Party rejuvenate its support for “Home Rule all Round” and compete with a then resurgent SNP.


James Duncan Gordon Davidson was born on January 10, 1927, to Alastair Davidson and his wife Valentine (nee Osborne). 
Educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and Downing College, Cambridge, he went on to serve in the British Navy and as naval attache at the British Embassy in Moscow. In 1947, he became a Member of the Royal Victorian Order and, in 1955, married Catherine Ann Jamieson, with whom he had a son and two daughters. 


After several years as a farmer, in the mid-1960s Davidson was selected to fight the West Aberdeenshire constituency on behalf of the Liberals. At the 1964 General Election he came a good second to the Unionist incumbent Forbes Hendry, going on to defeat him two years later with a majority of more than a thousand, benefitting in part from a UK-wide Liberal “revival”. He was one of four Liberal gains, taking the party back to its post-war tally of a dozen MPs. 


Davidson’s maiden speech dealt at length with the myriad concerns of a large constituency covering more than 2,000 square miles: Highland depopulation, forestry, skiing, water supplies, the needs of small farmers and improved transport links. He urged a North-east Scotland development authority similar to the Highlands and Islands Development Board later established. 


His own family, he told MPs, had been associated with Aberdeenshire for more than half a century. “Before that,” Davidson added light-heartedly, “they were either Highland renegades or Scandinavian marauders, so I have a certain tradition to live up to.”


Thereafter, Davidson acted as Liberal Party spokesman on defence and foreign affairs, a high-profile role given the ongoing Vietnam War and Labour’s plans to scale back British forces “East of Suez”. In July 1966, he and a couple of colleagues caused controversy by calling for Nato to be “reformed and overhauled considerably”, a line discussed in party councils but not official policy. 


When Jo Grimond stood down as UK Liberal leader in 1967, he apparently asked if Davidson would consider running as his successor. He declined, although he took a long time to decide whom he would back. 


Eventually, the evening before the ballot, Davidson was taken by David Steel to see Jeremy Thorpe at his London flat where, “after much talk and whisky”, he finally agreed to give Thorpe his vote, a decision, along with several colleagues, he came to regret. 


Although Davidson’s bill to hold consultative constitutional referendums in Scotland and Wales ultimately failed, the idea eventually became political orthodoxy, the first territorial referendum being held in 1973 (in Northern Ireland), UK-wide in 1975 (on continuing membership of the Common Market) and in Scotland and Wales in 1979.


Speaking in the House of Commons in 1969, Davidson denied his bill was a “concession to the Nationalists”, but rather built on Liberal policy of six decades standing. 


It was, he argued, “a straightforward attempt to find out what form of government would be most acceptable to the majority of the peoples of Scotland and Wales – nothing more and nothing less.”


The Scotland and Wales (Referenda) Bill offered the people of Scotland and Wales four “clear” choices: the status quo; devolving additional powers to the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales and Scottish and Welsh Grand Committees; establishing devolved parliaments within a federal UK; and, finally, “complete independence within the British Commonwealth”.


After only one term as an MP, Davidson felt obliged not to contest the 1970 General Election due to a family illness. Although Davidson campaigned strongly to keep the seat in Liberal hands, it was regained for the Conservatives by the colourful Colonel Colin “Mad Mitch” Mitchell, famous for his maverick role in Aden. 
Out of Parliament, Davidson served as chief executive of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland until 1992, of which he became a Fellow. He also remarried, going on to have another son with Janet Stafford. In 1984 he was awarded an OBE and, in retirement, chaired the Clan Davidson Association while producing a number of books on naval history. 


James Davidson died peacefully at his home in Newtonmore, Inverness-shire.

David Torrance