Anna McCurley

Anna Gemmell was born in Glasgow on 18 January 1943. Her parents ran a small business, and she was educated at the fee-paying Glasgow High School for Girls. When she was an adolescent, she suffered from a spinal tumour that left her completely paralysed down one side of her body, although she later made a complete recovery. Upon leaving school she attended the University of Glasgow, Strathclyde University and Jordanhill College of Education, where she received a Diploma in Secondary Education. McCurley taught history at secondary schools for six years, before becoming a College Methods Tutor at Jordanhill College in 1972. She later trained to be a solicitor, but recurring health troubles forced her to eventually abandon these plans. ==Political career==

As a young woman, McCurley was a member of the Liberals, but she was persuaded to join the Conservative Party after attending a speech given by Gerald Nabarro. However, the party ultimately ran Gerry Malone, who lost to Roy Jenkins of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). McCurley was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the newly created seat of Renfrew West and Inverclyde in the 1983 general election landslide after a close three-way contest. She had a majority of 1,322 votes over the SDP's Dickson Mabon who finished second, with Labour's candidate George Doherty finishing only 208 votes behind Mabon. Mabon had been Labour MP for Greenock and Port Glasgow since 1974 (and prior to that its predecessor seat Greenock from 1955) until joining the SDP in 1981, but the Liberal Party had pushed for one of their members to contest that seat for the Alliance. She contested the Chairmanship of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association, the party's voluntary wing, in 1989, losing to Sir Michael Hirst, the former MP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, in what was later described as a "bitter contest". In 1997, she attempted to become the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Eastwood constituency, but failed to make it to the shortlist stage, with Paul Cullen eventually taking the candidature. She explained her defeat by suggesting that her "views are more traditional Conservative than modern Conservative", but The Independent reported that she scuppered her already "slim chances" when she publicly stated that she would rather see Donald Duck become the candidate than her old foe Sir Michael Hirst, who was also competing to be selected. McCurley joined the Scottish Liberal Democrats in 1998 and stood as a candidate in the 1999 elections to the Scottish Parliament for Eastwood. ==Personal life and death==

McCurley's marriage to John McCurley, a psychiatrist, was dissolved in 1997. In her later years she was again affected by the spinal condition she had experienced as a child, which often left her in great pain. She died on 31 October 2022, at the age of 79. ==References==

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1983 •