1426 Cathcart Wason

Constituency  : Orkney  and  Shetland  1900-21   ( Liberal  Unionist  to 1902, Independent  Liberal to  1906 )

The  1900  General  Election  was  the  first  so-called  "khaki  election", the  Unionist  government  seeking  to  capitalise  on  their   apparently   successful  prosecution  of  the  Boer  War  and  the  consequently  divided  state  of  the  Liberal  party.  They  more  or  less  got  what  they  wanted  with  a  largely  "as  you  were"  result. The  Liberals  made  a  small  net  advance  of  six  seats  , making  a  noticeable  recovery  in  the  south  west. The  Liberal  Unionists  had  a  net  loss  of  four  seats  despite  making  3  gains  in  Scotland. Again,  the  Conservatives  could  have  governed  without  them. There  were  2  seats  for  Labour  although  Richard  Bell  ran  in  tandem  with  a  Liberal  in  Derby  and  Keir  Hardie  was  endorsed  by  one  of  the  incumbent  Liberals  in  preference  to  his  erstwhile colleague.

Cathcart's  victory  was  one  of  the  Liberal  Unionist  gains  in  Scotland . He  unseated  Leonard  Lyell  by  40  votes.

Cathcart  was  the  brother  of  Eugene  Wason, the   Liberal  MP  for  Clackmanannshire  and  Kinross.  He  was  educated  at   Rugby  School. He  was  both  a  barrister  and  a  farmer.  In  1868  he  emigrated  to  Canterbury, New  Zealand  and  bought  a  large  estate  there  which  he  named  Corwar.  He  built  a  model  village  called  Barrhill  at  its  centre. He  had  three  separate  terms  as  an  MP  in  New  Zealand. Barrhill  was  constructed  on  the  expectation  that  a  railway  would  be  built  nearby. When  it  wasn't, Cathcart  saw  the  project  as  unviable. He  sold  up  in  1900  and  returned  to  Scotland.

Cathcart  did  not  stay  in  the  Liberal  Unionists  for  long. In  1902  he  quit  the  party  and  re-fought  his  seat  as  an  Independent  Liberal. He  was  successful  against  both  Liberal  and  Liberal  Unionist  candidates. By  1906  he  was in  the  main  Liberal  fold.

Cathcart  had  easy  wins  in  1906  and  January  1910. He  was  unopposed  in  December  1910  and  in  1918  when  he  stood  as  a  Coalition  Liberal.

Cathcart  was  an  enormous  man  who  stood  at  6' 6.

Cathcart  was  known  for  knitting  socks  during  debates  in  the  Commons. He  expressed  concern  about  motor  car  fatalities  in  1902. In  1903   he  protested  at  the  privileged  few  having  "the  right  to  drive  the  public  off  the  roads. Harmless  men, women  and  children, dogs  and  cattle, have  all  got  to  fly  for  their  lives  at  the  bidding  of  these  slaughtering, stinking  engines  of  iniquity". He  admitted  there  wasn't  a single  car  in  his  constituency.

Cathcart  was  also  anti-immigration. In  1903  he  posed  the  question,"What  is  the  use  of  spending  thousands  of  pounds  building  beautiful  workman's  dwellings  if  the  places  of  our  own  workpeople, the  backbone  of  our  country, are  to  be  taken  over  by  the  refuse  and  scum  of  other  nations".

He  died  in  1921  aged  72.