Myer Galpern

Obituary

Lord Galpern, who has died aged 90, had a distinguished political career spanning 60 years, becoming Glasgow's first Jewish Lord Provost and MP, writes Albert Benjamin. Myer Galpern was educated at Hutcheson's Grammar School and Glasgow University, where he studied medicine, but joined the familyretail furniture business.An ardent supporter of the Independent Labour Party, with radical views, he won the municipal seat for it in Shettleston and Tollcross in 1932. He lost his councillor's seat on the Corporation of Glasgow when hemoved to the Labour Party in 1947but regained it in 1949 and became leader of the Labour group years later. Education and youth were his specialities. He was a member of the Glasgow education committee for 25 years and its convenor from 1955-58. He was instrumental in gaining a local authority grant towards the building of Habonim House, opened in 1957, and was honorary president of Glasgow Habonim, Glasgow Jewish Students' Society, and the Hillel Foundation in Glasgow. He also procured funding for equipment to provide kosher school meals. When he was elected Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1958 for a three-year term, the event was marked by the Jewish community with a banquet in his honour. The civic service at Garnethill Synagogue, where he had been a council member, was a first for the city and the community. He was the first Jew to represent aGlasgow constituency when he was elected MP for Shettleston in 1959, on the retirement of the previous incumbent. For a time he continued in the dual role of Lord Provost and MP, but he left the corporation a year early and received a knighthood in the 1960 New Year honours. As a backbencher, he earned a reputation for competence and impartiality, seasoned with a keensense of humour — when television was introduced experimentally into the chamber in 1966, he declared himself against the innovation, although he admitted that he loved appearing on screen.He chaired several House of Commons committees and was appointed a deputy speaker in 1974, only the second Jew to hold that post after an 80-year gap following the Liberal MP, Sir Julian Goldsmid. He was respected for his judge-ment in a number of tense situations, including the debate over theScotland Act and the social unrest ofthe "winter of discontent" duringJarnes Callaghan's government. An impressive speaker with a forthright style of oratory, he was an authoritative chairman who always command-ed fhe interest of his audience.He was created a life peer in Callaghan's 1979 resignation honours list. He was a regular attender in the upper house right to the end, com-muting from Glasgow by plane.In Glasgow's Jewish community, he was a popular, outgoing figure, possessing the common touch and supporting such issues as the Campaign for Soviet Jewry. He was president of the then Jewish old age home in Scotland, retiring in 1967. Together with Symie Miller, president of the Glasgow Jewish Welfare Board, he was instrumental in securing for the home, and also for the Jewish Association of Mentally Handicapped, substantial donations from an anonymous donor.In his business life, he was noted for his probity and fair-mindedness.,His support for Israel was marked by the dedication of a children's hospital ward in Jerusalem to him and his wife, Alice. On a Labour Friends of Israel fact-finding mission to Israel in 1970 to investigate complaints of Israeli treatment of Arabs, he looked in vain for his father's tombstone on the Mount of Olives. He found it had been removed by the Jordanians forroad paving.He is survived by his wife, son,daughter and grandchildren.