Blood on the Walls: Memoirs of an Anti-Royalist from Miner's Row to Royal Palace by Willie Hamilton, ISBN 0747511160
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR ON THE FRONT FREE END PAPER THUS: "Best wishes from Willie Hamilton Republican*" (*This word has been underlined three times); Bloomsbury 1992 1st ed/1st printing, 218pp., text generally in decent order albeit with a patch of scuffing/rubbing to the page extremities at the very bottom (not affecting the text), slight bumping to board corners at the bottom, to bottom & sides of boards & to top & bottom of spine, rear board very slightly marked, the dust jacket is slightly rubbed & creased at top & bottom with slight scuffing to the corners, to the top & bottom of the spine & to the rear bottom right hand side (with minute loss in the case of the last-named), both front & rear have many marks & scratches.
William Winter Hamilton (26 June 1917 – 26 January 2000) was a British politician who served as a Labour Member of Parliament for constituencies in Fife, Scotland for 37 years, between 1950 and 1987. He was known for his strong republican views. Born in
Houghton-le-Spring, the son of a County Durham miner, Hamilton joined the Labour Party as a teenager in 1936. He was educated at Washington Grammar School and Sheffield University, and following graduation became a schoolteacher. After initially being a conscientious objector in World War II, he served as a captain with the Pioneer Corps in the Middle East. Hamilton contested West Fife at the 1945 general election, but lost to Communist Willie Gallacher. In 1950 he overturned that result, winning by over 13,000 votes. In 1974, after boundary changes, he became MP for Fife Central. In 1986 Hamilton was replaced as Labour candidate in Fife Central by Henry McLeish, and stood in the ultra-safe Conservative seat of South Hams in Devon, South-West England, where he came third, polling just 8% of the vote and losing to Conservative candidate and sitting MP Anthony Steen. He sponsored the equal pay for equal work bill in the 1970's but is best remembered for his stridently anti-royalist views, branding the Queen "a clockwork doll", Princess Margaret "a floozy", and Prince Charles "a twerp". However, he admired the Queen Mother, declaring on her 80th
birthday: "I am glad to salute a remarkable old lady. May she live to be the pride of the family".
Will ship by Royal Mail 1st Class Signed for, well packaged.
(£5.55/neben/shawn)