Willie Hamilton

William Winter Hamilton, known as Willie Hamilton, (26 June 1917 – 26 January 2000) was a Scottish anti-monarchist Labour Member of Parliament in Fife.

Hamilton joined the Labour Party as a teenager in 1936, and became a schoolteacher. After initially being a conscientious objector in World War II, he served as a captain with the Pioneer Corps in the Middle East.

Hamilton contested West Fife at the 1945 general election, but lost to Communist Willie Gallacher. In 1950 he successfully overturned that result, winning by over 13,000 votes. In 1974, he became MP for Fife Central after boundary changes. In 1987, Hamilton was replaced as Labour candidate in Fife Central by Henry McLeish, and stood in South Hams, where he came third, polling just 8% of the vote. Standing in South Hams entitled Hamilton to an extra payout for MPs who leave the House of Commons due to defeat at an election, rather than through retirement.

He sponsored the Equal Pay For Equal Work Bill in the 1970s, but is best remembered for his stridently anti-royalist views. He branded the Queen "a clockwork doll", Princess Margaret "a floozy", and Prince Charles "a twerp".

Hamilton died in 2000 at the age of 82.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/620037.stm BBC reports his death]