People of the 20th Century
JO GRIMOND

One man dominates the story of Orkney politics in the 20th century: Jo Grimond. for 33 years his name was synonymous with that of Orkney as he became a household name in Britain, not just as MP for Orkney and Shetland but, for ten years, as leader of the Liberal Party.

As others came and went, Jo Grimond remained a constant. In ten successive General Election victories, he was returned as an MP to a House of Commons which saw nine different Prime Ministers during his Westminster career.

A recurring concern for Jo Grimond throughout his 33 years as MP for the Northern Isles was the problem of depopulation which saw the electorate shrink almost by the month. It was already one of the smallest constituencies in Britain, and there were fears that if the population continued to leave, Orkney and Shetland could even lose its own separate representation.

However, whatever the population problems of Orkney, Grimond had established himself as a major political figure and it was no surprise when, in after six years as Chief Whip, he was elected, at the age of 43, as the new leader of the Liberal Democrat party.

After ten years in the post, Jo Grimond, now 53, resigned as leader of the Liberal Party in January, 1967 – although he would continue as MP for Orkney and Shetland for another 16 years.

But he was still obviously in the public eye. In 1969, he was elected as rector of Aberdeen University.

Jo Grimond’s final General Election, in 1979, was “the quietest campaign in the century,” proclaimed The Orcadian. However he again romped home a comfortable winner with a majority of 6,810 as again he got more votes than all the other candidates put together in a poll which saw a 67.35 turnout of voters.

After he stood down as MP in 1983, Jo Grimond was given a peerage to become Lord Grimond and the great older statesman – once described as the ”greatest politician never to become Prime Minister” – remained a powerful voice of Liberal thinking.

The regard with which he was held in Orkney was shown after his death in 1993 when hundreds attended his funeral service at St Magnus Cathedral before he was laid to rest at the Finstown cemetery not far from the Old Manse that had been his home for 43 years.