George Malcolm Thomson (journalist)

He was born in Leith on 2 August 1899 into a Presbyterian family, the eldest son of the journalist Charles Thomson and his wife Mary. His parents belonged to the United Free Church.{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |pages=26–7 |language=en}} He attended Daniel Stewart's College from age 10, and was a student at Edinburgh University from 1919 to 1922. In his final university year, he founded with another undergraduate, Roderick Watson Kerr, the Porpoise Press.{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |pages=30–2 |language=en}}

Kerr in 1922 went to work on The Scotsman, and in 1926 moved to the Liverpool Daily Post.{{cite book |last1=Royle |first1=Trevor |title=In Flanders Fields: Scottish Poetry and Prose of the First World War |date=2012 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781780574325 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HyDxLyb6yigC&pg=PT52 |language=en}} The same year, following his marriage, Thomson moved to London to work as a journalist, and write books.{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |pages=36–7 |language=en}} His early books attracted the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, and he joined Beaverbrook Newspapers in 1931.{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |page=10 |language=en}} He acted as Principal Private Secretary to Beaverbrook, who was in government during World War II.{{cite book |last1=Haffenden |first1=John |last2=Eliot |first2=T. S. |last3=Eliot |first3=Valerie |title=The Letters of T. S. Eliot Volume 5: 1930-1931 |date=2014 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=9780571316335 |page=313 note 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G54kBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT313 |language=en}}

In 1990 Thomson was awarded an OBE for services to journalism.{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Aeneas |last2=Thomson |first2=George Malcolm |title=Whisky |date=2006 |publisher=Canongate |isbn=9781841958576 |page=xvii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rFMqQYGq7y0C&pg=PR17 |language=en}} He died in June 1996, in Hampstead.{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |page=15 |language=en}}

Caledonia (1927) had dwelt on Irish immigration to Scotland, as did Andrew Dewar Gibb's Scotland in Eclipse (1930), with the connected theme of slum housing in Glasgow. The two authors described a perceived threat in the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.{{cite book |last1=McCulloch |first1=Margery Palmer |title=Scottish Modernism and its Contexts 1918-1959: Literature, National Identity and Cultural Exchange: Literature, National Identity and Cultural Exchange |date=2009 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748634750 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wGrBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |language=en}} At this time, the newly-joined United Free Church and Church of Scotland were leading a campaign against Irish-Scots Catholics, now seen as racist. Gibb and Thomson repeatedly denounced the same group.{{cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to Scottish History |isbn=9780199234820 |page=517 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65A-KFw1GU8C&pg=PA517 |language=en}} Their position has been described as a "strident, racially oriented nationalism which was politically to the far right and had quasi-fascist tendencies."{{cite book |last1=Finlay |first1=Richard J. |title=Independent and Free: Scottish Politics and the Origins of the Scottish National Party, 1918-1945 |date=1994 |publisher=John Donald Publishers |isbn=9780859763998 |page=130 |language=en}} The context, identified by Stewart J. Brown, was the "exclusivist racial nationalism" of Presbyterians, dating from the early 1920s and their distancing from the UK Labour Party, and associated with the Church union in Scotland.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Stewart J. |title=The social vision of Scottish Presbyterianism and the Union of 1929 |url=https://archive.org/details/rschsv024p1brown/page/91 |page=91 |publisher=SCHS |date=1990}}

In terms of party politics, the National Party of Scotland, of the left, was first countered by the Scottish Party set up in 1932, of the right, by Gibb and James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose, with others. Then with the mediation of Thomson and Neil Gunn, the two parties merged in 1934, to form the Scottish National Party, with the exclusion of some radical nationalists. Electorally the Scottish Protestant League peaked in Glasgow local government in 1933. Fascist ideology made no further advances in Scotland.{{cite book |last1=Lyall |first1=Scott |title=Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics of Place: Imagining a Scottish Republic: Imagining a Scottish Republic |date=2006 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748630059 |pages=38–9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LeCqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 |language=en}} Gibb and Thomson went on to found the Saltire Society, concerned with Scottish culture and heritage, in 1936.{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Paul Henderson |title=Scotland Resurgent: Comments on the Cultural and Political Revival of Scotland |date=2003 |publisher=The Saltire Society |isbn=9780854110834 |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U4E3KY1B9GQC&pg=PA199 |language=en}}

For Thomson, 1935 and the publication of his book Scotland: That Distressed Area marked the end of his involvement in Scottish politics that had been pursued covertly. Lord Beaverbrook as his employer required him to sign an agreement that he would cease these activities.{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |pages=191–2 |language=en}}

• Caledonia: or the Future of the Scots (1927), in the To-day and To-morrow series. It provoked a reply, Albyn: or Scotland and the Future (1927) by C. M. Grieve.{{cite book |last1=Lyall |first1=Scott |title=Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics of Place: Imagining a Scottish Republic: Imagining a Scottish Republic |date=2006 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748630059 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LeCqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |language=en}} Both works met with criticism from the historians Robert Rait and George Smith Pryde (1899–1961).{{cite book |last1=McKechnie |first1=George |title=The Best-hated Man: George Malcolm Thomson, Intellectuals and the Condition of Scotland Between the Wars |date=2013 |publisher=Argyll Publishing |isbn=9781908931320 |page=11 |language=en}}
• The Re-Discovery of Scotland (1928){{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Tom |title=Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Scotland, 1819-1914 |date=1987 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=9780719023965 |page=[https://archive.org/details/glasgowuneasypea00gall/page/130 130] |url=https://archive.org/details/glasgowuneasypea00gall |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• Whisky (Porpoise Press, 1930), as Aeneas MacDonald, one of the Seven Men of Moidart{{cite book |last1=Buxton |first1=Ian |title=Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser: New writing on beer and whisky in honour of Michael Jackson. |date=2009 |publisher=Neil Wilson Publishing |isbn=9781906476953 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m7XYnWeH1N8C&pg=PT32 |language=en}}
• Can the Scottish Church Survive? (1930), pamphlet
• The Kingdom of Scotland Restored, undated pamphlet of 1930/1{{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=The Kingdom of Scotland Restored |publisher=Humphrey Toulmin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VzL3GgAACAAJ |language=en}}
• Scotland: That Distressed Area (1935){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=Scotland: That Distressed Area |date=1935 |publisher=Porpoise Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yk-hQAAACAAJ |language=en}}
• The Twelve Days: 24 July to 4 August 1914 (1964){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=˜The Twelve Days: 24 July to 4 August 1914 |date=1964 |publisher=Hutchinson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2HhvgEACAAJ |language=en}}
• The Robbers Passing By (1966)
• The Crime of Mary Stuart (1967){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=The Crime of Mary Stuart |date=1967 |publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=9789110032866 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PlrswwEACAAJ |language=en}}
• Vote of Censure (1968){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=Vote of Censure |date=1968 |publisher=Stein and Day |url=https://archive.org/details/voteofcensure00thom |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• Sir Francis Drake (1972){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=Sir Francis Drake |date=1972 |publisher=Secker and Warburg |isbn=9780436520495 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IM8gAAAAMAAJ&q=editions:i9Gjy9AunyYC |language=en}}
• ;Lord Castlerosse,His Life and Times(1973)
• The Prime Ministers: From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher (1980){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=The Prime Ministers: From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher |date=1980 |publisher=Secker & Warburg |isbn=9780436520457 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ePcgAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
• The First Churchill: The Life of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1979){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=The First Churchill: The Life of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough |date=1980 |publisher=Morrow |isbn=9780688035563 |url=https://archive.org/details/firstchurchillli0000thom |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• A Kind of Justice: two studies in treason (1970){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=A Kind of Justice: two studies in treason |date=1970 |publisher=Hutchinson |url=https://archive.org/details/kindofjusticetwo0000thom |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• The North-West Passage (1975){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=The North-West Passage |date=1975 |publisher=Secker and Warburg |url=https://archive.org/details/northwestpassage0000thom |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• Warrior Prince: Prince Rupert of the Rhine (1975){{cite book |last1=Thomson |first1=George Malcolm |title=Warrior prince: Prince Rupert of the Rhine |date=1976 |publisher=Secker & Warburg |isbn=9780436520471 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HJnAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
• The Ball at Glenkerran (1982)

His play Moonlight Flitting was produced at London's Whitehall Theatre in 1938.{{cite book |last1=Wearing |first1=J. P. |title=The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel |date=2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780810893047 |page=716 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2mYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA716 |language=en}}

Thomson married in 1926, in Oslo, Else Ellefsen (died 1957), whose portrait had been painted by Eric Robertson (1887–1941) of the Edinburgh Group. She translated (1923) The Plague in Bergamo by Jens Peter Jacobsen for the Porpoise Press.{{cite book |last1=Glen |first1=Duncan |title=Small Press Publishers of Scotland: Idealists and Romantics 1922-2006: With a Checklist of Publications from Small Scottish Literary Publishers 1920-2006 |date=2006 |publisher=Akros Publ. |isbn=9780861421763 |page=54 |language=en}}

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Category:1899 births

Category:1996 deaths

Category:Scottish journalists

Category:People from Leith