Obituary: Mairi Stewart - Pioneering Nationalist who encouraged generations of aspiring SNP politicians

I doubt very much that Mairi Ross Stewart considered herself a particularly extraordinary individual, yet no-one who came into contact with her was in any doubt as to how remarkable she was.

Born in Edinburgh in 1913, her first memory was of being carried by an aunt from her bed to the centre of the family home during a Zeppelin raid on the city. One of her last memories, earlier this year, was when she joined her colleagues in the Scottish National Party to celebrate an outstanding election success, which might have seemed a forlorn hope when she joined the old National Party of Scotland in 1931.

That long life mirrored a very special time for Scotland, and Mairi was a very special lady.

Despite her very early years in Edinburgh, Skye was where she spent most of her childhood after being taken there at school age when her father Angus Nicolson and mother Christina moved for work purposes.

Mairi was the second of five children – the others being Margaret, Ian, Lena and Donnie – and by all accounts Mairi was the most mischievous of the three sisters. One of the most abiding memories we will all have of Mairi is of a naughty glint never far from her eye and of a laugh never far from her lips.

Mairi caught the politics bug at Portree High School, and she retained her interest, curiosity and commitment right to the end. Her deep love of Skye never left her, although the family returned to Edinburgh, where she attended Boroughmuir High School to sit her Highers.

It is a measure of how striking a person she was that she gained entry to Edinburgh University to study Latin in 1932, long before it was usual to see women in university lecture theatres. She wanted to get her degree, obviously, but her other ambitions were to dance in the cabaret troupe and get elected to the Students’ Representative Council.

She was successful in all three endeavours. She also met her husband to be, Douglas Stewart (Dougie), in the Student Nationalist Society, at a time when few in Scotland were bending their minds to the country’s constitutional future, and some years before the SNP came into existence. They were not just pioneers of our movement, but truly prescient.

They married in 1942, but spent a number of years apart since Dougie was stationed in Burma, then Java. South-east Asia would play an even bigger part in their lives when, after the war, Dougie took a job on the Straits Times in Singapore. Mairi travelled with him and became principal of McNair Boys’ School and then Duchess Road Mixed School. The Singapore years saw one tragedy in 1948, with the early death at only three days old of their first child, Ian, but this was followed by a happier birth in 1950 when “wee” Mairi came into the world.

They returned to Edinburgh in 1953 as they didn’t want wee Mairi to have to attend boarding school. They sent her to the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School. Mairi wanted an eduction for her daughter that took account of the whole person, not just the academic side of things.

It was through her connection with the Steiner school – where the staff, pupils and parents were appalled by talk of Britain exploding a hydrogen bomb over Christmas Island – that Mairi became involved with the peace movement and Scottish CND in 1957. Mairi contributed greatly to the peace movement during the 1950s and early 1960s.

From 1959 to 1963, Mairi, Dougie and their daughter marched, over Easter weekends, the 52 miles from Aldermaston to London on the anti-war demonstrations organised by CND.

Mairi had a passion for wanting to make a difference in our world. She was a feminist, believing women were equal to men in their power to change things in society. As a member of the Liaison Committee for Women’s Peace Groups, she shared their beliefs that, regardless of party-political beliefs, women should be united in the conviction that they had a special responsibility for safeguarding children and society from war. In 1964, she went, with a delegation of three other women from Britain – representing the Liaison Committee – to Russia to meet women there involved in peace groups.

The discussions included ways of working for peace, the responsibility for speaking out against governments when necessary, the need to watch that power does not corrupt, British elections and the British press.

From all these activities she brought a wealth of political understanding and commitment to the then growing SNP. Although she never held high office, somehow she always seemed to be at the centre of things, and a small Newington branch/South Edinburgh constituency was transformed by her into something of a nursery for aspiring Nationalist politicians.

Anyone who walked up the stairs into the tiny rooms owned by the branch in the 1960s and 1970s would have been struck by the international flavour of the meetings and membership. In just one year, 1976, the membership included a doctor who had worked in Cambodia, a Church of Scotland missionary back after more than 30 years in Malawi, an ex-emigre to Canada and a young Scot returned from growing up in Australia, whose nervousness at the reception she might receive was swept away by Mairi’s wide open arms.

That was the thing about Mairi: everyone was welcomed and everyone encouraged, particularly young women (though not exclusively, as the current Cabinet secretary for finance can attest). Mairi attended party meetings and conferences across the country, and wanted everyone else to do the same so they could get a good political education.

If she spotted a political opportunity that looked promising, she would point it out to you straight away then chase after you to make sure you had followed it up. She brought an air of fun to all of the branch proceedings – no mean feat as any political activist will tell you – and kept everyone going even though South Edinburgh could hardly have been called fertile SNP territory in the 1970s. In the face of Mairi’s lifelong commitment, what were a few ups and downs in the 1970s and 1980s?

During much of this time Dougie was also editor of the Scots Independent, and it was hard to imagine one without the other. Sadly, however, Dougie died in 1988, just one month before their only grandchild Emily was born. That was a hard time for Mairi, but family and friends were able to step in and restore her spirits. You might think that advancing years would have slowed her down, but that would be to underestimate the depth of her passion and commitment. She was overjoyed at the SNP’s success in 2007, and at a mere 95 years of age she was still on her feet giving a tub-thumping speech about independence at the 40th anniversary of the Newington branch. She saw it as her job to remind us that, however far we’d come, the job was not yet done.

Earlier this year, at the opening of the parliament, she delighted in having her photo taken with a great many of those whom she had nurtured and encouraged over the decades. Her “babies” were now MSPs and ministers, and Mairi’s influence was stamped on every single one.

Although frail, her joie de vivre was still in evidence, her desire to stay up to date as great as ever and the mischievous laugh could be heard around the Garden Lobby.

Quite simply, she sparkled. She sparkled with life and with the love of her family, friends and country. Somehow it seemed that Mairi would go on forever, so her death on 18 September, after an operation for a broken hip, came as a shock to all.

She is survived by her daughter Mairi, son-in-law David, granddaughter Emily, and sister and brother Lena and Donnie.

ROSEANNA CUNNINGHAM