Billy Wolfe (politician)

Wolfe was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, the son of Thomas Wolfe, owner of George Wolfe & Sons Ltd. and the Bathgate Forge Co. Ltd, which manufactured shovels. He was educated at Bathgate Academy and George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and saw active service during World War II, serving with the Scottish Horse (Royal Artillery) from 1942 to 1947 in France, the Low Countries, Germany, Indonesia and Malaya. Following demobilization, he qualified as a chartered accountant in 1952, and was company secretary of the family firms from 1952 to 1964. He later established his own business, Chieftain Forge Ltd (1964–1986), supplying and manufacturing forestry equipment and shovels. Billy Wolfe was a man of wide interests: a longstanding member of the Saltire Society, the Scout Association and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a Justice of the Peace, and an officebearer in the Scottish Poetry Library, as well as being a poet in Scots in his own right. Initially he was more interested in cultural matters, but his dissatisfaction with the government of Scotland grew, and he became convinced of the need for Scottish independence. ==Political career==

Wolfe joined the SNP in 1959. Having swung his support behind the ‘It's Scotland's oil’ campaign that changed the party's fortunes, he associated the SNP with the trade union campaigns against shipyard and other industrial closures and asserted its role as a radical participant in Scottish politics. Wolfe was instrumental in identifying publicly the social democratic, left-of-centre credentials of the SNP. It was during Wolfe's period as leader that the party had considerable electoral success in elections to the Westminster parliament, winning 30% of the vote in Scotland and 11 of the 71 Scottish seats in the October 1974 General Election, though Wolfe failed to win a seat of his own in West Lothian in the two general elections of that year, despite gaining an increased share of the vote. In both instances the SNP's National Executive Committee disowned Wolfe's statements, causing Wolfe to withdraw his candidacy from that year's election for the office of party president. Wolfe later apologised for his remarks, saying "I ask for forgiveness of those whom I hurt, if they understand me now. I can see myself then as others saw me ... I don't know why I did it". His second wife, Kate McAteer, was a practising Roman Catholic. ==Personal life==

William Wolfe married Arna Dinwiddie in 1953 and they had four children. They divorced in 1989. He married Catherine McAteer in 1993. The marriage lasted until his death. He died at Udston Hospital, Hamilton in March 2010, aged 86. Alex Salmond and Iain Gray were among the political leaders who offered their condolences. Salmond stated that Wolfe had "transformed it [the SNP] into a modern political party". ==Positions and commitments==

• Treasurer, Saltire Society, 1953–1960 • West Lothian County Commissioner, Scout Association, 1960–1964 • Honorary President of Heriot-Watt University Students' Association, 1966–1969 • Member, Forestry Commission's National Committee for Scotland, 1974–1987 • Treasurer, Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1982–1985 • Secretary, Scottish Poetry Library, 1985–1991 • Director, Eriskay Pony (Purebred) Studbook Society - Comann Each nan Eilean Ltd, 2002–2010 ==Publications==

• Scotland Lives: the Quest for Independence, 1973 == References ==