Hugh McCartney was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

Born in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, McCartney studied at John Street senior secondary school and at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow. He joined the Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

's Guild of Youth

ILP Guild of Youth

The ILP Guild of Youth was a British socialist youth organization, the youth wing of the Independent Labour Party. The ILP Guild of Youth was founded in 1924. A year after its founding, the ILP Guild of Youth had 171 branches. The launching of the ILP Guild of Youth provoked the Labour Party to...

 at the age of 14 and began a textile apprenticeship. He joined the Labour Party at 16. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he entered engineering at Rolls Royce

Rolls-Royce Limited

Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....

 in Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

 and for the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, active as a trade unionist.

In 1955, McCartney became a councillor on Kirkintilloch

Kirkintilloch

Kirkintilloch is a town and former burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about eight miles northeast of central Glasgow...

 town council, and in 1965 a Dunbartonshire

Dunbartonshire

Dunbartonshire or the County of Dumbarton is a lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Until 1975 it was a county used as a primary unit of local government with its county town and administrative centre at the town...

 county council

County council

A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...

lor, serving on both until 1970. In 1970 he was elected to Parliament for the Clydeside seat of Dunbartonshire East, defeating Communist

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 shipbuilders' trade union leader Jimmy Reid

Jimmy Reid

James "Jimmy" Reid was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician, and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in between June 1971 and October 1972 attracted international recognition...

. McCartney too became active in supporting the Clydeside shipbuilding industry.

From 1974, McCartney represented Dunbartonshire Central, then Clydebank and Milngavie

Clydebank and Milngavie (UK Parliament constituency)

Clydebank and Milngavie was a county constituency in Scotland. It returned on Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 2005, when it was redistributed to West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire as part of a major reorganisation of...

 from 1983 after further boundary changes. A low-profile Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, he was a Scottish whip

Whip (politics)

A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...

 and active in the TGWU and Scottish groups of Labour MPs. He retired from Parliament in 1987.

McCartney was married to fellow trade unionist Margaret, with whom he had two daughters, Irene and Margaret, and one son Sir Ian McCartney

Ian McCartney

Sir Ian McCartney is a former politician, who was the British Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Makerfield constituency between 1987 to 2010, and served in the Cabinet, from 2003 to 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister...

. Ian also had a career on politics and his roles included : Minister of State for Trade

Minister of State for Trade

The Minister of State for Trade is an executive position in the Government of the United Kingdom, in both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

, Chairman of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Makerfield

Makerfield (UK Parliament constituency)

Makerfield is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

between 1987-2010.