His life & work:
(This information is from an affectionate family memoir, written by his grandson Tony Benn and published in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ in 1990, forwarded to us by the author, himself elected as an Honorary Member in 2002.)
Daniel
Turner Holmes was elected to Parliament as a Liberal MP for the Govan
division of Glasgow in a by-election in 1911. He served until 1918 when
he was defeated.
He was not really a politician at all, but a scholar who had been persuaded
to stand, rather against his own better judgement, because of his great
popularity as a lecturer who could hold audiences spellbound with his
accounts of historical events and the light that they threw on current
affairs.
In that capacity he represented perfectly the deep commitment of his fellow countrymen and women to education and the importance of learning – describing himself as “a worshipper at learning’s shrine”, more interested in his books than anything else, and as an author and poet of some considerable ability.
Born in Irvine in 1863, he was the second son of James Holmes, a steeplejack, and a deeply religious man, and Elizabeth Turner, who bore eight children, five of who died in their youth – all from preventable diseases.
Daniel was so keen to learn that from the age of three he insisted on going to school with his elder brother. Later, sitting for an external degree at London University, he came first among all the examinees from all over the country. He continued his studies at the Sorbonne and became head of the English department at Paisley Grammar School.
From 1904 to 1908 he travelled around Scotland lecturing at local literary societies, travelling by train, steam boat, mail coach, horse bus, pony trap, wagon cart, and foot, in all weathers. He estimated that he had spoken to over 40,000 people.
Everywhere he found a tremendous passion for learning. Of the weavers, he commented that they “had far clearer views on politics than most of their legislators”. A discussion on the Mull ferry on ‘Has the Deity unlimited Free Will?’ saw some of the ship’s crew joining in.
His maiden speech in the House of Commons on the Temperance (Scotland) Bill held his fellow MPs with his humour: “I do not expect that, in our generation at least, alcohol will ever be out of date and when I look at the history and even the climate of my native country I know quite well that my fellow countrymen will never be sickeningly abstemious or ostentatiously teetotal”. He was also known as the “Poet Laureate of the House of Commons”, leaving a notebook full of the most amusing verses about his colleagues and contemporary affairs.
His daughter, Margaret, married William Wedgewood Benn, then MP for Leith, in 1920. She is herself a scholar, an honorary member of the Hebrew University.
Daniel Holmes retired after leaving Parliament and travelled widely. In October 1942 he was made an honorary burgess of the Royal and Ancient Burgh of Irvine and died on April 7th, 1985, at the age of 93.
His grandson, Tony Benn, remembers him as a kindly and absent-minded old man, always ready to teach his grandchildren and assuming – quite rightly – that they would be interested in what he had to say.
Tony Benn comments:
“There are not many scholars in parliament, which is a great pity,
for politics seems to have degenerated into abuse as a substitute for
exposition and our society is the poorer for it. Daniel Holmes represented,
faithfully, in the House of Commons, that passion for learning that has
‘always characterised the Scots’.”