Sir William Hannay Raeburn, 1st Baronet (11 August 1850 – 12 February 1934) was a Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 shipping businessman and Unionist Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) between 1918 and 1923.

Raeburn was a shipping magnate who founded in 1873 a shipping company called Raeburn & Dunn, with Captain Dunn. John Verel replaced Dunn in 1880 and the company was subsequently renamed Raeburn & Verel. By 1900 the company operated around 12 steamers, travelling to ports from Europe to America and he Far East. Monarch Line. In 1902 Raeburn and Verel formed the Monarch Steamship Company Ltd. Raeburn was an important figure in the shipping industry in the West of Scotland and contributed to some of the shipping legislation which passed, including the Merchant Shipping Act

Merchant Shipping Act

Merchant Shipping Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to merchant shipping.-List:*The Merchant Shipping Act 1786*The Merchant Shipping Act 1844...

 and the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906

Workmen's Compensation Act 1906

The Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which dealt with the right of working people for compensation for personal injury....

.

At the 1918 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

, Raeburn was nominated as the Unionist Party candidate for the Dunbartonshire

Dunbartonshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Dunbartonshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1950...

. He received the "coalition coupon

Coalition Coupon

The ‘Coalition Coupon’, often referred to as ‘the coupon’, refers to the letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the United Kingdom general election, 1918 endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory in...

" and as a "Coalition Unionist" he overwhelmingly defeated the sitting Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 MP Arthur Acland Allen

Arthur Acland Allen

Arthur Acland Allen was a British Liberal Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament between 1906 and 1918....

 (who won a meagre 13% of the votes). Raeburn was re-elected in 1922 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1922

The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...

 with a majority of only 0.8% over his sole opponent, the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 candidate William Martin

William Henry Porteous Martin

William Henry Porteous Martin was a Scottish Labour Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Dunbartonshire from 1923 to 1924....

. He did not contest the 1923 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1923

-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

, when Martin won the seat, and did not stand for Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 again.

On 29 June 1923, he was made a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

, of Helensburgh

Helensburgh

Helensburgh is a town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde and the eastern shore of the entrance to the Gareloch....

.