{{Short description|Scottish politician (1926–2012)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Use British English|date=May 2012}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Janey Buchan | image = Janey O'Neil Buchan 1989.jpg | caption = Official portrait, 1989 | office = Member of the European Parliament<br/>for Glasgow | term_start = 1979 | term_end = 1994 | predecessor = ''Constituency established'' | successor = Bill Miller | birth_name = Jane O'Neil Kent | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1926|04|30}} | birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2012|01|14|1926|04|30}} | death_place = Brighton, England | party = Labour | other_party = Communist Party of Great Britain (until 1956) | spouse = {{marriage|Norman Buchan|1946|1990|end=d.}} }} '''Janey O'Neil Buchan''' ({{Nee}} '''Kent'''; 30 April 1926 – 14 January 2012) was a Scottish Labour politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Glasgow constituency from 1979 to 1994.
== Early life == Jane Kent was born in Glasgow,<ref>{{cite web|date=16 January 2012|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/former-glasgow-mep-janey-buchan-dies.1326733121|title=Former Glasgow MEP Janey Buchan dies|work=The Herald|location=Glasgow|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref> a city where her father Joseph was a tram driver, and her mother Chrissie Sinclair was a domestic servant.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=McSmith|first=Andy|date=2012-01-18|title=Janey Buchan: MEP who fought for artistic and political causes|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/janey-buchan-mep-who-fought-for-artistic-and-political-causes-6290954.html|access-date=2020-07-25|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> She left school at the age of 14, and worked as a typist. Both parents were members of the Communist Party,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Janey Buchan (1926 - 2012)|url=https://www.gcu.ac.uk/|access-date=2020-07-25|website=Glasgow Caledonian University|language=en}}</ref> and she was a member of the Young Communist League in her early life; she left the Communist Party after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was crushed by the Soviet Union.<ref name=":2" />
She attended commercial college and was a councillor on Strathclyde Regional Council from 1974 to 1979, when she was elected to the European Parliament in 1979 for the first time.<ref name=":2" /> 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 Scottish Minorities Group (later Scottish Homosexual Rights Group and subsequently Outright Scotland).<ref>{{cite web|author=John Hein|date=18 January 2012|url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/18/comment-janey-buchan-1926-2012/|title=Former MEP, civil rights campaigner and patron of the arts Janey Buchan has died aged 85|publisher=Pink News}}</ref>
Her lifetime of activity encompassed many fields. She was an early and active campaigner against apartheid and for nuclear disarmament. She was a supporter of Scottish traditional music and arts,<ref name=":0" /> and booked Pete Seeger for his first concert abroad after his passport was reissued in 1961.<ref name=":2" /> She helped run the People's Festival in 1949–52 during the Edinburgh Festival; the events she worked on 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''.<ref>{{cite web|date=16 January 2012|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-16580383|title=Anti-apartheid campaigner Janey Buchan dies aged 85|publisher=BBC}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1946, at the age of 19 Jane Kent married Norman Buchan, a schoolteacher who later became Labour MP from 1964 for West Renfrewshire, and later Paisley South.<ref name=":2" /> He died in 1990. Janey Buchan died at a nursing home in Brighton, East Sussex, in 2012, aged 85 years.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2012-01-22|title=Janey Buchan|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9031174/Janey-Buchan.html|access-date=2020-07-25|issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=16 January 2012|title=Ex-Labour MEP Janey Buchan dies, aged 85|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/ex-labour-mep-janey-buchan-dies-aged-85-1646858|access-date=2020-07-25|website=The Scotsman|language=en}}</ref> She was survived by her brother, Enoch Kent, her son Alasdair (a journalist), four grandchildren and three great-grandsons.<ref name=":2">{{cite news|title=Janey Buchan obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jan/18/janey-buchan|access-date=22 January 2018|work=The Guardian|date=18 January 2012}}</ref>
The papers of Norman and Janey Buchan were donated to Glasgow Caledonian University.<ref name=":1" /> In 2023 The Janey Buchan Political Song Collection was moved to the National Library of Scotland.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Powles|first=John|title=Janey Buchan: A Biographical Introduction|url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/research/music/projectsandnetworks/psc/janeybuchanandpoliticalsong/|access-date=2020-07-25|website=University of Glasgow Political Song Collection|archive-date=25 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725175431/https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/research/music/projectsandnetworks/psc/janeybuchanandpoliticalsong/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Songs from left and right|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/songs-from-left-and-right-1.287636|access-date=2020-07-25|website=The Irish Times|language=en}}</ref> Her parliamentary papers are also archived.<ref>[http://www.specialcollections.uws.ac.uk/janey.pdf Janey Buchan Parliamentary Papers],</ref> In 2019, she was one of the candidates for "Greatest Glaswegian" in the ''Glasgow Times''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Fotheringham|first=Ann|date=4 September 2019|title=Greatest Glaswegian: Gorbals businessman Willie Haughey and politician Janey Buchan|url=https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/17879652.greatest-glaswegian-gorbals-businessman-willie-haughey-politician-janey-buchan/|access-date=2020-07-25|website=Glasgow Times|language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|id=2855664}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchan, Janey}} Category:1926 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Scottish Labour councillors Category:Scottish Labour MEPs Category:MEPs for Scotland 1979–1984 Category:MEPs for Scotland 1984–1989 Category:MEPs for Scotland 1989–1994 Category:20th-century women MEPs for Scotland Category:Women councillors in Glasgow