Anaccidentalstart

General Election fever was gripping Stirling 100 years ago.

And one of the leading candidates in the area got his campaign off to an unfortunate start – when the car in which he was travelling knocked down a potential constituent in Stirling.

Scottish Liberal Party candidate John Murray Macdonald was and on his way to a public meeting in Peter Memorial Hall when the accident happened.

Retired farmer William McGregor, aged 78 , of Miller Place, Stirling, was crossing Port Street when he was hit.

The Observer said: “He became confused by the approach of the motor with the result that it hit him. He sustained a cut on the head and some bruises and was taken to the Royal Infirmary.’’

Mr McGregor was expected to be allowed home after a day’s treatment.

Mr E Smith, who chaired the public meeting, referred to the accident at the close of the public meeting and ‘jocularly’ mentioned that Mr Murray Macdonald faced an encounter with police next day.

Mr Smith was applauded when he told the audience could infer ‘ from the high tone of the address that evening that the occurrence was quite accidental’.

Britain’s wartime coalition Government led by Liberal David Lloyd George had called a General Election in the days following the signing of the Armistice. The life of the Parliament elected in 1910 had been extended because of the war. Voting was due to take place on December 12, 1918. Mr Murray Macdonald, from Argyllshire, was a candidate in the constituency which covered Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth.