Patrick Dollan

Early years

Born in Baillieston of Irish descent and raised Roman Catholic, Dollan attended St Bridget's elementary school until he was ten years old. He later joined his father working as a miner at Clydeside Colliery in 1900. He married Agnes Moir, a Protestant, in 1912. She was a staunch pacifist and suffragette during World War I.

Activism

Patrick and Agnes Dollan were vocal in raising awareness of the plight of thousands of Glasgow tenants who were having their rents raised at a time when military conscription had reduced their earning potential. Government concern at the volatile situation in the city led to the Rent Restrictions Act of November 1915, freezing rents at pre-war levels. In the 1920s he was the author of a booklet, The Clyde Rent War!, a narrative of the Glasgow rent strikes of 1915-16, which also contained proposals for housing policy reform.

Dollan was the chairman of the Scottish section of the Independent Labour Party from 1920 until 1932, when he was expelled and formed his own Scottish Socialist Party, which immediately affiliated to the Labour Party.

In 1939 he won the inaugural St Mungo Prize, which is awarded triannually to the person deemed to have done the most to promote and improve the city of Glasgow in the previous three years. At the beginning of World War II, Dollan encouraged his fellow Glaswegians to support the war effort against fascism, for which efforts he was knighted in 1941.

Miscellanea

He served as Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1938-41. The Dollan Baths in East Kilbride, Scotland's first Olympic-sized swimming pool, is named in his honour.