Hector McNeil

Hector McNeil PC (10 March 1907 – 11 October 1955) was a Scottish Labour politician.

McNeil was educated at Woodside School and the University of Glasgow, trained as an engineer and worked as a journalist on a Scottish national newspaper. He was a member of Glasgow Town Council 1932-8. He chaired Glasgow Trades Council and stood for Parliament unsuccessfully in Galloway in 1929 and 1931, in Glasgow Kelvingrove in 1935 and in Ross and Cromarty in 1936. He was elected Member of Parliament for Greenock unopposed in a wartime by-election in 1941.

Following the 1945 election, McNeil became a junior minister at the Foreign Office. He was promoted to Minister of State in October 1946 and appointed a member of the Privy Council. Through his position at the Foreign Office, he was vice-president of the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 and leader of the British delegation to the Economic Commission for Europe, 1948. It was later revealed that his Secretary at the time, Guy Burgess, was a Soviet agent, although McNeil never came under suspicion.

He served as Secretary of State for Scotland from February 1950 until October 1951 in the government of Clement Attlee. McNeil died shortly after keeping his seat in the 1955 election.

Hector McNeil Memorial Baths

The Hector McNeil Memorial Baths was a swimming pool in the town of Greenock named in honour of McNeil. The foundation stone was laid by McNeil's wife on October 9, 1963. The baths were demolished in 2002 after the Greenock Waterfront Leisure Centre opened.

References

• Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Robert Gibson	Member of Parliament for Greenock 1941–1955	Succeeded by Dickson Mabon
Political offices
Preceded by Arthur Woodburn	Secretary of State for Scotland 1950–1951	Succeeded by James Stuart