As Central Office agent in Yorkshire and director of the party in Scotland, the avuncular, canny Macmillan was a mentor to constituency agents, a tactful coordinator of the voluntary party, and a wise guide to young candidates.
Sir Graham Macmillan
William Hague once confided that Macmillan “taught me all I know”, while Lord Deedes summed him up as “a practised hand at giving women in a committee room a squeeze warm enough to make their eyes sparkle, without disturbing their husbands”. He could fight his corner effectively, but was an honourable man who deplored duplicity and mischief-making by anyone in the party.
Alexander McGregor Graham Macmillan was born in Glasgow on September 14 1920 . Educated at Hillhead High School, he served in the Royal Artillery throughout the war and on demobilisation in 1946 determined to become a Conservative agent.
He began his career in the unpromising constituency of West Lothian, fighting the 1950 general election there before moving south to the safe Tory Haltemprice. He stayed in Yorkshire three years before moving to Bury St Edmunds, which became, after Scotland, his true home.
His talent was quickly recognised; in 1960 Central Office recruited him as its deputy agent for the North-West and a year later gave him the top job in Yorkshire.
Macmillan stayed 14 years in Leeds, upgrading the party organisation and bringing on a new generation of Yorkshire Conservative MPs while the party nationally was losing four elections out of five. No matter how unpromising the outlook, he always secured maximum effort from his troops — among them Hague, who burst on to the national scene as a schoolboy with a rousing speech to the party conference.
Macmillan also faced the challenge of Peter Walker’s local government reorganisation in which three new Yorkshire counties were created and many old authorities abolished, a process that bruised many egos.
While the first county elections were held at a difficult time for the Tories, Macmillan’s reshaped organisation performed well.
When, after Margaret Thatcher’s election as party leader in 1975, a new director was sought for the Scottish party to win back ground lost to the Nationalists, Macmillan was the obvious choice.
Based in Edinburgh and working directly to the Scottish party chairman, initially George Younger, he rebuilt morale in seats unexpectedly lost in 1974 and, despite being on permanent election alert, paved the way for Scotland to contribute to victory in 1979 with six net Tory gains.
This achievement was the more remarkable given that Macmillan had to keep the party organisation intact and battle-ready through the devolution referendum campaign of early 1979, in which some Tories, to Mrs Thatcher’s disapproval, campaigned for a “Yes” vote. It was the Labour government’s failure to gain the decisive “Yes” it sought — as Macmillan had shrewdly predicted — that triggered the general election that returned the Conservatives to power.
With the party in office, Macmillan faced a greater challenge: broad Scottish antipathy to Thatcherism, which polarised the party between moderates (many privately attracted to devolution) and an increasingly radical element. Labour’s unelectability and feuding within the SNP enabled him to hold the line in the 1983 election, but tensions behind the scenes were increasing and retirement with a knighthood the next year came as a relief.
Macmillan returned to Bury St Edmunds, and became chairman of the Mid-Anglian Enterprise Agency and a member of the Transport Users’ Consultative Committee for Eastern England .
Graham Macmillan married, in 1947, Christina Beveridge, who died in 1998. Their two sons and two daughters survive him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8396315/Sir-Graham-Macmillan.html
Macmillan also faced the challenge of Peter Walker’s local government reorganisation in which three new Yorkshire counties were created and many old authorities abolished, a process that bruised many egos.
While the first county elections were held at a difficult time for the Tories, Macmillan’s reshaped organisation performed well.
When, after Margaret Thatcher’s election as party leader in 1975, a new director was sought for the Scottish party to win back ground lost to the Nationalists, Macmillan was the obvious choice.
Based in Edinburgh and working directly to the Scottish party chairman, initially George Younger, he rebuilt morale in seats unexpectedly lost in 1974 and, despite being on permanent election alert, paved the way for Scotland to contribute to victory in 1979 with six net Tory gains.
This achievement was the more remarkable given that Macmillan had to keep the party organisation intact and battle-ready through the devolution referendum campaign of early 1979, in which some Tories, to Mrs Thatcher’s disapproval, campaigned for a “Yes” vote. It was the Labour government’s failure to gain the decisive “Yes” it sought — as Macmillan had shrewdly predicted — that triggered the general election that returned the Conservatives to power.
With the party in office, Macmillan faced a greater challenge: broad Scottish antipathy to Thatcherism, which polarised the party between moderates (many privately attracted to devolution) and an increasingly radical element. Labour’s unelectability and feuding within the SNP enabled him to hold the line in the 1983 election, but tensions behind the scenes were increasing and retirement with a knighthood the next year came as a relief.
Macmillan returned to Bury St Edmunds, and became chairman of the Mid-Anglian Enterprise Agency and a member of the Transport Users’ Consultative Committee for Eastern England .
Graham Macmillan married, in 1947, Christina Beveridge, who died in 1998. Their two sons and two daughters survive him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8396315/Sir-Graham-Macmillan.html
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