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Neil Maclean

British politician (1875-1953)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ6988912
Source-derived summary

Neil Maclean (1875 – 12 September 1953) was a Scottish socialist and an Independent Labour Party and later Labour Party Member of Parliament for Govan.

Maclean was the first Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party, but was expelled in 1908. Then a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), Maclean worked closely with other socialists in the Glasgow area, as part of the Red Clydeside movement. Like many other Red Clydesiders, he was a conscientious objector during the First World War. He greatly influenced Manny Shinwell. An organiser for the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, at the 1918 general election, Maclean was elected to the House of Commons to represent Govan in Glasgow. When many of his fellow ILP Clydesiders left the Labour Party, Maclean remained a Labour MP, associating for a time with the Scottish Socialist Party.

Maclean retired from Parliament in 1950, not having secured renomination. He was offered a seat in the House of Lords, but declined due to his socialist principles.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Neil Maclean” as british politician (1875-1953). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1875, 1953, 1908, 1918—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1875-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Neil, Maclean and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british politician (1875-1953). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6988912. VIAF identifies the subject as 85172651. The Library of Congress control number is no2010148932. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1953, 1908 and 1918.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Neil Maclean”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Neil Maclean primary sources, Neil Maclean archive and Neil research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Neil Maclean”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Neil Maclean” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.