596 Sir David Wedderburn

Constituency : South  Ayrshire  1868-74, Haddington Burghs 1879-82

Sir  David  was  the  first  MP  for  the  new  constituency  of  South  Ayrshire.

Sir  David  was  a  Scottish  baronet  and  barrister.

In  1873  Sir  David  visited  Victor  Hugo  in  Guernsey   in  which  he  admitted  to  republican  sympathies but  said  "If  I  said  that  aloud, I  would  not  be  re-elected".  He  decided  not to  stand  in  1874  anyway judging  his  prospects  hopeless  and  had to  wait  until  1879  to  get  back  in  at  a  by-election.

Sir  David  was  an  inveterate  traveller. In  1881  Sir  David   visited  South  Africa  and  on  his  return
called  for  the  restoration  of  King  Cetawayo. His  travel  journals  were  published  after  his  death.

Shortly  before  his  death  Sir  David  wrote  a  perceptive  analysis  of  Gladstone. "The  prime  minister  can  now  do  no  wrong  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude... the  conduct  of  his  enemies  has  made  him  dictator. It  is  possible , however, for  a  great  man  to  have  many  attached  personal  friends, and  to  be  the  idol  of  the  multitude, and  yet  to  fail  in  securing  anything  like  personal  devotion  among  his  immediate  subordinates  and  supporters. To  be  in  continual  proximity  to  the  chief  without  receiving  the  fainyest  indication  that  one  is  known  to  him  by  name , or  even  by  sight, must  chill  the  ardour  of  even  the  most  zealous  follower. There  is  a  mortification  for  the  follower  in  the  discovery  that  he  has  no  personal  identity  in  the  memory  of  his  great  leader, a  memory  which  is  almost  preternatural in  iits  retentiveness  and  grasp".  

He  resigned  his  seat  through  ill  health  in  1882  and  died  shortly  afterwards  aged  47.