Obituary: Tom Howe, politician

Tom Howe was the prominent Scottish nationalist whose lifetime campaigning work for independence put the Scottish National Party firmly on the political map of Moray.

Howe both gave and earned respect. In an era when Gordon Campbell was MP for Moray & Nairn - and later Secretary of State for Scotland 1970-74 - Howe was never short in praising his abilities. "He may be of the wrong party, but he's a good MP," he said.

In turn, the ever courteous Gordon Campbell (later Lord Campbell of Croy) was once overheard saying of Howe in admiring tones: "That man has political ambition."

In the 1970 general election Tom Howe became the first SNP candidate to stand in Moray & Nairn and took nearly 8,000 votes, setting the scene for Winnie Ewing to win the seat for the SNP in 1974. He was later elected for the SNP as a councillor in Moray District Council and then for Moray Council following local government reorganisation in 1996.

Active in his local area, he oversaw the establishment of the Buckie Drifter, a tourist attraction detailing the impact of fishing on the Moray Coast and opened in 1994 by Magnus Magnusson. Four years later, he chaired the council meeting handling the delicate situation of the termination of employment of a then chief executive.

He stepped down after 25 years of council work in 2003 but continued campaigning in retirement. In truth he never stopped, having campaigned vigorously for the SNP both locally in Moray and nationally in every election from 1960. Last month, he was out and about in Moray canvassing voters in support of the re-election of MSP Richard Lochhead. Some of Howe's best ideas were also the cheapest. He arranged with the newsagent in Fochabers in 1967 to display a copy of the nationalist Scots Independent on the rack outside the shop in addition to the weekly.

If by the end of the week, the display copy was unsold, Howe would buy that also. The upshot was that by spring 1969, the weekly order for the Scots Independent was represented by a pile 18 inches high on the counter - in addition to the one on the rack outside.

For one so thirled to his beloved Moray, Tom Angus Howe actually hailed from Aberdeenshire, born in Turriff where his father was a gardener at nearby Hatton Castle. He went to primary school in Glassel on Deeside, but his formal education ceased through ill-health at just 12. The family doctor advised outdoor work, and Howe joined Willie Main's salmon fishing crew at Altens, Kincardineshire.At a celebratory "This Is Your Life" to mark his 70th birthday, Howe credited Willie Main as "the man who completed my education".

Howe joined the SNP as a 25-year-old in 1954, an era when party membership could be counted in mere hundreds, those allied to Home Rule movement being viewed as "poets and dreamers". Howe, as fisheries manager handling net fishing on the River Spey for the Crown Estate, proved to be neither, espousing from the start a hard-headed approach to popularising the nationalist cause.

A powerful and charismatic character, Howe, as Moray's very own elder statesmen, was in high demand for speaking engagements. For some years, he journeyed to Aberdeen to give the annual oration at the Wallace Statue on the anniversary of Sir William Wallace's martyrdom in August 1305. His 57-year membership of the SNP included presidency of his beloved Moray constituency association.

Yet for all his veteran status, his trademark boyish air and youthful enthusiasm never left him. "He really was Peter Pan," said his wife Margo.

A keen Burns scholar, his rendition of Tam o Shanter at Burns Suppers not only put new meaning into an old poem, but would be delivered energetically and in highly amusing fashion.

Largely responsible for the historic SNP breakthrough in Moray in 1974, Howe's last public appearance was with his wife Margo as guests at the swearing-in of MSPs at Holyrood.

He died suddenly and unexpectedly between Denmark and Germany during a Baltic cruise with his Margo. He is survived by her, and his daughter Gail and granddaughter Sarah.