Eugene Wason

Wason was first elected to Parliament at the 1885 general election for the constituency of Ayrshire South. This was his local seat as his home was at Blair, Dailly, a village in the county. He held the seat only until the 1886 election when he lost to a Liberal Unionist but regained it at the 1892 general election and then served as its MP until 1895 when he again forfeited the seat to a Liberal Unionist, Sir William Arrol.[8]

Wason returned to Parliament in December 1899. The sitting Liberal MP for Clackmannan and Kinross, J B Balfour became a judge and resigned his seat. Wason was selected as Liberal candidate and fighting the by-election against the background of the war in South Africa he managed to hold the seat, beating his Conservative opponent George Younger[7] albeit by a marginally reduced majority of 516 – down from 545 at the previous general election.[9]

After his by-election victory, Wason retained his Clackmannan and Kinross seat at the 1900 general election in a straight fight with the Conservatives by a majority of 351. In the Liberal landslide election of 1906 he increased his majority over the Conservatives to 1,379 and in January 1910 he maintained his advantage by a majority of 1,268. In December 1910 he was returned unopposed.[10] By 1918 Wason was 72 years old and decided to retire from Parliament at the next election.[11] He therefore stood down from Parliament at the 1918 election.[12]

Wason became a veteran MP, serving nearly 25 years in all. He was Chairman of the Scottish Liberal members for ten years from 1908 to 1918[3] and was always a keen supporter of Scottish interests. He spoke in Parliament in favour of Home Rule for Scotland.[13] He presided at the meeting of Scottish Liberal members at the House of Commons which urged the government to implement the motion passed at the Scottish National Liberal Council at Dunfermline on 22 October 1910 which called for Home Rule to enable Scottish reforms to be carried through, adapted to the traditions, circumstances and aspirations of the Scottish people.[14] He served as Honorary President of the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture[15] and later led a deputation of Scottish Liberal MPs to prime minister H H Asquith in his room at the House of Commons on 25 April 1912 urging the introduction of a Bill for Scottish self-government in the next Session.[16] According to another source the delegation saw the prime minister again on 6 May 1912 and, while agreeing there was no groundswell of opinion in Scotland for home rule, there was 'concern and disgruntlement at the general neglect of Scottish affairs' and they told Asquith they were worried this might escalate if not dealt with through an element of devolution.[17]

In the obituary of Wason written for The Times newspaper, he was described as a political Radical.[4] He was said to be a frequent speaker in the House of Commons (unlike his brother Cathcart) and usually gave expression to advanced radical views. On one important radical issue of the day, women's suffrage, he himself claimed to have always voted in favour.[18] His support of Home Rule all Round was also indicative of radical sentiments. However, after he left Parliament, in the days when the old Liberal tradition was collapsing under the strains and stresses of party splits, the confusion of the electorate as to Liberal policy and the massive expansion of the electorate as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1918,[19] Wason's radicalism was tested. At the general elections of 1923 and 1924 in Wason's home area of South Ayrshire no Liberal candidate could be persuaded to stand, leaving a straight fight between Labour and Conservative parties.[20] Faced with this choice at a time of polarisation in British politics, with Liberalism at a low ebb in Ayrshire[21] Wason supported the Conservative.[22]

In July 1902, Wason was appointed to be a member of the important Select committee on National Expenditure. Other members appointed at that time included Winston Churchill, Bonar Law and Austen Chamberlain.[23]

In 1907, Wason was created a Privy Councillor after which he was able to be termed The Right Honourable and was eligible to receive sensitive government information on highly confidential terms.[24]

In June 1915 he was appointed by the then Secretary for Scotland Thomas McKinnon Wood as Chairman of a Committee on Food Production in Scotland (under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland) to make recommendations about maintaining and increasing food production on the assumption the war would last beyond the harvest of 1916.[25] He also served as a member of the Committee on the Scottish National War Memorial.[26] In 1917 he was made a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Ayrshire[27] and was for some years a Justice of the Peace in Ayrshire.[3]