At 3pm on Wednesday the 29th August 1928, the diary of Alexander MacCallum Scott washed up on the shore of Discovery Bay, Canada. Why this is relevant to Blantyre Project is due to the fact that McCallum Scott was a Blantyre man, an MP, who died an early death in a foreign, early passenger plane crash.

The diary is remarkable in itself as it told of MacCallum’s early years at Boathouse, Blantyre and of his political accomplishments. The contents of the diary are explored here in Blantyre Project.

The following day, on 30th August 1928, Mrs MacCallum Scott’s body was washed ashore and after a further week the body of MacCallum Scott himself. The body of Mr MacCallum Scott, the former M.P., was found in the wreckage of the plane, in which he and six others, including Mrs MacCallum Scott, met their death.

After the wreckage had been towed into shallow water in Pugo Sound, the body was identified by clothing and papers found on it.

Along with his wife and five others Mr MacCallum Scott was on a flight from Victoria, British Columbia, to Seattle, on 25th August 1928, when the aeroplane fell from the sky to the sea.

Mr MacCallum Scott, who was born Boathouse, Blantyre in 1874, was 54 years of age when the plane went down.

After leaving Glasgow University he took journalistic and political work in London and subsequently held various offices in the Liberal Ministry. Mr MacCallum Scott represented the Bridgeton Division of Glasgow from 1910- 1922, and joined the Socialist party in 1924. During World War One, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Ministry of Munitions from 1917 to 1919. Three years later was appointed Coalition Liberal Whip for Scotland. He was a member of the Interim Forest Authority and member of the Speaker’s Committee on Electoral Reform in 1916-17. Mr MacCallum Scott was the prospective Socialist candidate for East Aberdeenshire.

There is much more to tell about this man and his upbringing. Indeed, it would make a great book or film in itself!