Donald MacCormick

Donald MacCormick (16 April 1939 was a Scottish broadcast journalist.

Early life MacCormick's father was a Glasgow teacher who died when Donald was six. As a result, he became close to the family of his uncle John MacCormick, a lawyer and advocate for Scottish devolution.

He studied English at the University of Glasgow, where he was chairman of the Labour Club with Donald Dewar and John Smith. Following his graduation, he trained to become a teacher at Jordanhill College of Education and taught at the High School of Glasgow from 1962 to 1967.

Media career He began his media career in Scotland in 1967, working at Grampian Television as a news reporter and then later, on political programmes both for ITV and BBC. He presented the ground-breaking political programme Public Account for BBC Scotland with James Cox and Andrew Neil.

In 1975, he moved to London and became a presenter on BBC1's new Tonight programme

On 28 March 2009 MacCormick returned to the BBC to present an evening on BBC Parliament. The Night The Government Fell marked the 30th anniversary of the vote of no confidence in the Labour government headed by James Callaghan. 30 years previously MacCormick had presented a live programme in Westminster covering these same events.

MacCormick died of a heart attack on 12 July 2009. He was divorced from Lis MacKinlay, by whom he had three children. He was married to Liz Elton from 1978 until his death; they had two children. All five children survive MacCormick.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who first met MacCormick at Glasgow University in 1959, paid tribute to the broadcaster saying: "Donald MacCormick was a prince among broadcasters. His style was always civil but insistent. He was always thoroughly prepared and his kind of journalism characterised all that is best in the BBC."