Alexander MacEwan

Sir Alexander Malcolm MacEwen (10 January 1875 – 29 June 1941) was a Scottish politician and solicitor who served as the inaugural leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 1934 to 1936.

Early life Alexander Malcolm MacEwen was born on 10 January 1875 in Calcutta, India, the son of Robert Sutherland Taylor MacEwen (1839–1900), a barrister from Dornoch who served in India as the Recorder of Rangoon. MacEwen was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and the University of Edinburgh. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1901, he began his legal career in Stornoway, before joining the Inverness legal firm of Stewart Rule & Co., where he later became senior partner.

In 1932 MacEwen was one of the founders of the Scottish Party, and in the 1933 Kilmarnock by-election he stood as the joint candidate of the Scottish Party and the National Party of Scotland, coming fourth with 6,098 votes.

Leadership of the Scottish National Party (1934–1936) With the merger of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party on 7 April 1934 to form the Scottish National Party, MacEwen became the new party's first leader. The party's performance in the 1935 general election was disappointing with only Inverness and MacEwan in the Western Isles achieving respectable results.

MacEwen stood down as leader of the SNP in 1936, when he was succeeded by Andrew Dewar Gibb. He died at his home on the Black Isle in 1941, aged 66. MacEwen had three sons and two daughters. His son Malcolm joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and became a prominent conservationist. MacEwen Drive in Inverness is named after him.

Publications The Thistle and the Rose - Scotlands Problem To-Day, 1932 Scotland at School - Education for Citizenship, 1938 Towards Freedom, 1938