Janey Buchan, Scottish politician, MEP for Glasgow (1979–1994),died she was 85.

Janey Buchan was a Scottish Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Glasgow constituency from 1979 to 1994 when she retired from the post aged 67 died she was 85..^[1]

^{(30 April 1926 – 14 January 2012)}

Janey Kent was born in Glasgow, a city where her father was a tram driver, and her mother was a domestic servant. She left school at the age of 14, and worked as a typist. In 1946, at the age of 19 she married Norman Buchan, a schoolteacher who later became Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1964 for West Renfrewshire and latterly Paisley South. He died in 1990.
She attended commercial college and was a councillor on Strathclyde Regional Council from 1974 to 1979, when she was first elected to the European Parliament in the first elections, in 1979. As an MEP she sat on the European Parliament's Culture Committee as well as being involved in the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Gas Consumers Council. She was life president of the leading Scots gay organisation Outright Scotland.^{[citation needed]}
Her lifetime of activity encompassed many fields. She helped run the People's Festival in 1949-52 during the Edinburgh Festival; the events helped create the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As a Glasgow city councillor, she organised the first charity Christmas card sales in the UK. As a member of the council's arts committee she was instrumental in providing funding for the first films made by Bill Forsyth, who went on to direct major UK and Hollywood films including Local Hero.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Buchan died in Brighton, East Sussex. She was survived by her brother, Enoch Kent; her son Alasdair (a journalist), four grandchildren and one great-grandson.


To see more of who died in 2011 click here