Cathcart Wason
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(John) Cathcart Wason, Liberal, was elected as MP for the constituency of Orkney & Shetland on 23rd October 1900, replacing Leonard Lyell. He served the seat until his death on 19th April 1921, when he was replaced by Malcolm Smith.
Wason had previously been a Member of Parliament in New Zealand,
He was the son of Rigby Wason, M.P. for Ipswich, born on 17th November 1849, near Grivan, Ayrshire. He was educated at Laleham and Rugby. Wason was a farmer and barrister before emigrating to New Zealand in 1868. In 1874 he married Alice Seymour, daughter of Edward Bell, C.E. He bought land and developed an estate near the town of Rakaia, on New Zealand's South Island, including building a village called Barrhill. But when a railway he had expected to be built in the area was relocated further away he gave up on expanding the estate and village, and eventually sold the estate in 1900 to return to Scotland.
Wason was elected to New Zealand Parliament in 1876, resigned1879, re-elected 1881, defeated 1893, re-elected 1896 and called to the Bar in 1887.
When Wason was elected to the Orkney & Shetland seat in 1900 it was as a member of the Liberal Unionist Party, but he resigned and was re-elected in 1902, in a by-election, as an Independent Liberal. He was re-elected as a member of the Liberal Party in the elections of 1906, 1910 (2 elections), and 1918.
