Unionist Party candidate
Alan Gomme-Duncan took which position from Jul 1945 to Feb 1950?
Alan Gomme-Duncan Colonel Sir Alan Gomme Gomme-Duncan ( 5 July 1893 – 13 December 1963 ) , born Alan Gomme Duncan , was a British Army officer who served in both World Wars ; he was recalled to the army at the age of 45 in advance of Second World War . In a brief break in his career he was Inspector of Prisons for Scotland . After the liberation of Europe he went into politics and served for fourteen years as a Unionist Party Member of Parliament ( MP ) in Scotland , becoming known for humorous remarks combined with a lively partisanship . Early life and First World War . Duncan was the only son of Alfred Edward Duncan , and was sent to Merchant Taylors School . At the outbreak of the First World War , Duncan joined the London Scottish , serving in France and Belgium . At the beginning of January 1917 , while holding the rank of lieutenant ( and temporary Captain ) , he was awarded the Military Cross . He was later transferred to the Black Watch for whom he served in Germany after the armistice and into 1919 . During the war , Duncan was twice Mentioned in Despatches , and was also wounded in action . He ended the war with the substantive rank of captain . Inter-war army career . After the end of the war , Duncan formed a business partnership with his father , who was a produce broker in the City of London . He married Mary Bourne on 2 April 1919 at Leavesden , Hertfordshire . However , Duncan , still an officer in the Black Watch , was posted to India later in 1919 ; he decided to remain in the army and not to pursue his business , and so the partnership with his father was dissolved on 1 July 1921 . In India , Duncan was a staff officer with the Western Command in Quetta from 1923 to 1927 . He returned to Britain in 1927 , and was a staff officer on the Northern Command based in York from 1929 to 1933 . He returned to India in 1933 for four more years with the Black Watch , before retiring from the army , with the rank of major , in 1937 . He moved to Bridge of Earn in Perthshire , and in 1938 he assumed by Authority the surname of Gomme-Duncan instead of Duncan . Recall to the colours . On 1 November 1938 it was announced that Gomme-Duncan had been appointed HM Inspector of Prisons for Scotland . This was to be a brief appointment , for Gomme-Duncan was recalled to the Colours as a reservist in June 1939 . He was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General at the War Office . 1940 saw Gomme-Duncan placed in command of the 70th Battalion of the Black Watch . In 1941 he was attached to the Royal Air Force , and in 1942 he became assistant adjutant-general at the War Office . Preparing for the invasion of France , Gomme-Duncan commanded 101 Reinforcement Group within 21 Army Group from 1943 to 1944 ; he went across to France with the Second Army , where he held a command in Normandy and also served in Belgium and the Netherlands . He finally left the army , as a colonel , in 1945 . Political career . For the 1945 general election , Gomme-Duncan was chosen as the Unionist Party candidate for Perth , which included his home at Bridge of Earn , and where the sitting member was retiring . Gomme-Duncan easily won election to the House of Commons , obtaining a majority of 10,867 . In November 1945 Gomme-Duncan seconded a motion calling on the Government to withdraw a proposal to build a hydro-electric scheme on a particularly picturesque highland lake ; he asserted that Parliament should not be led by the Electricity Commissioners in deciding which schemes to progress , and urged the government to consult the people of Scotland . He opposed the Civil Aviation Bill , arguing that it abrogated the Treaty of Union which guaranteed Scotland freedom of navigation in England . Indian independence . Gomme-Duncan spoke from experience in late 1946 when he opposed independence for India , contending that the Congress Party consisted of moneylenders and landlords who did not recognise their responsibilities to the peasants , while the British were the only people for 200 years who protected the toiling masses . He also defended the landlord and tenant system in Scotland . He succeeded in May 1948 in getting a pledge from Secretary of State for War Emanuel Shinwell that the Highland regiments would once again be supplied with kilts . He was a critic of the Governments policy in Palestine when the British mandate was surrendered , arguing that the withdrawal of British troops had been mishandled and that the Governments orders had favoured Jews over Arabs . On 30 November Gomme-Duncan presented a petition signed by 530,000 housewives who called on the Government to provide a fuller ration of fresh and varied meat , and a larger share of unrationed meat . In addition to serious points , however , Gomme-Duncan became known for making humorous remarks in Parliament , frequently provoking laughter . Scotland within the United Kingdom . At the 1950 general election , Gomme-Duncans constituency was subjected to boundary changes and renamed Perth and East Perthshire . Gomme-Duncan increased his majority to 13,144 , although the constituency saw the Scottish National Party obtain its highest vote of that election . Gomme-Duncan was gratified by the overall electoral failure of the SNP but urged that the signing of the Covenant by a million people be recognised as a sign of dissatisfaction and a commission established to look at the facts and figures . When the Stone of Scone was recovered after its kidnap by Scottish nationalists , he called for a tactful response including leaving the stone in Scotland ; when it was eventually returned to Westminster Abbey , he voiced his opposition . Political partisanship . In September 1950 Gomme-Duncan was made a delegate to the conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in New Zealand . After the Conservatives returned to power in the 1951 general election , he asserted that there was a serious lessening in the high reputation of the House of Commons due to the factious opposition . He good-humouredly suggested sending Hewlett Johnson , the Red Dean of Canterbury , to a psychiatrist when the Dean circulated Communist propaganda . Gomme-Duncan ran into controversy in late 1952 , when he claimed that the chairman of British European Airways , Lord Douglas of Kirtleside , had made a political speech to BEA workers claiming that a Labour government would increase their wages . Lord Douglas denied making any such speech and the Minister of Civil Aviation Alan Lennox-Boyd accepted his denial and issued a statement of confidence . Gomme-Duncan was obliged to withdraw his remarks . However his popularity did not suffer and soon after he was elected a vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee . He returned to the issue of hydroelectricity in early 1953 , moving to cancel a project in Breadalbane , Perthshire . He was re-elected in the 1955 general election with a majority of 13,721 over the Scottish National Party candidate , the partys former MP Dr Robert McIntyre . In the new Parliament he opposed proposals to increase the school leaving age to 16 , saying it would , without qualification , be a disaster . Political and lodge honours . In the 1956 New Year Honours list , Gomme-Duncan was created a Knight Bachelor for political and public services . He was staunchly loyal to the Government over the Suez Crisis , complaining at the outset that some broadcasts by the BBC to Egypt contained complete nonsense in presenting the British case . After the invasion he supported a motion critical of United States policy towards Suez for endangering the Atlantic alliance . He was appointed a Senior Grand Deacon in the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons in April 1956 . Retirement . At the beginning of 1957 , just after Sir Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister , Gomme-Duncan announced that he would retire at the end of the Parliament . Given the high political tension , the chairman of the Perth and East Perthshire Unionist Association stressed that there was no connection between the two events , and when Gomme-Duncan next spoke it was to attack the Labour MP Edith Summerskill for remarks which Gomme-Duncan asserted had disparaged British troops . He got into a shouting match with the Labour spokesman George Brown who defended Summerskill and disputed that she had made any such remarks . Gomme-Duncan duly retired at the 1959 general election . In Scotland , Gomme-Duncan held several positions of honour , including membership of the Royal Company of Archers ( the Sovereigns Bodyguard in Scotland ) ; he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland . Gomme-Duncan was president of the Perthshire Musical Festival Association and vice-president of Perthshire Agricultural Society and of the Boy Scouts in Perth District .