Donald Dewar; Leader of Scotland’s New Parliament

Donald Dewar, 63, the first leader of Scotland’s new parliament, which was formed last year. Long active in the British Labor Party, Dewar since 1978 had represented the Glasgow area in Britain’s Parliament in London and from 1997 until May of 1999 was British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s secretary of state for Scotland. Although Dewar had often been at odds with the Scottish Nationalists, in 1997 he led the Labor effort to join forces with the Nationalists and the Liberal Democrats and win a referendum establishing Scotland’s first democratic Parliament. Dewar was then elected first minister. After undergoing surgery last spring to replace a defective heart valve, Dewar told The Times that establishing Scotland’s “devolved” or semi-independent government had been far more difficult and “much more contentious” than he expected. Colleagues had worried that, for lack of an obvious successor, Dewar would stay too long in the stress-filled position, despite his tenuous health. He had continued conducting business Wednesday even after a bad fall in front of his official Edinburgh residence, delaying three hours before calling for a doctor. Affectionately known in his native Scotland as “Donny the Decent,” Dewar was also tagged by a friendly colleague as “Donny the Saxt,” a reference to the Scottish king Jamie the Saxt, who had a keen intelligence despite a dysfunctional image, finally earning the dubious tag of “the wisest fool in Christendom.” It was that king who united the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603, paving the way for unification a century later. On Wednesday in Edinburgh of a brain hemorrhage.