a political force. The SNP's early years were characterised by a lack of electoral progress and it wasn't until 1945 that the SNP's first member was elected to the UK parliament at Westminster. The party's first MP was Robert McIntyre who won a by-election for Motherwell under unusual wartime conditions, but he lost the seat in the general election later that year. McIntyre's brief spell did not particularly galvanise the SNP. The 1950s were characterised by low levels of support, and this made it difficult for the party to advance. Indeed, in most general elections they were unable to put up more than a handful of candidates. The party's former president, Roland Muirhead, devoted much of his time to the Scottish National Congress, a direct action organisation which competed for support with the SNP. A split occurred in the SNP in 1955 (although not as large as that of 1942) when a grouping styled the 55 Group started an organised campaign of internal dissent. This group was formed mainly of younger SNP members frustrated at the lack of progress of the party. This split proved to be minor and involved only a few members, mainly located in the city of Edinburgh, and the new National Party of Scotland made no impact whatsoever in the long-run. The 1960s Despite the poor record the SNP had in the 1950s, by the 1960s, they were beginning to make more impact. They won a significant vote in the 1961 Glasgow Bridgeton by-election, and William Wolfe did well at the 1962 West Lothian by-election. The party began to grow quickly in the 1960s with a rapid growth in the number of recognised branches. For example, in 1966 alone the SNP National Executive recognised 113 new branches of the party. 1967 was the year that the party signalled they could begin to make an impact electorally. The party polled very well at the Pollok by-election, winning some 28% of the votes cast in a constituency where they had never stood before. Later that year, the SNP scored an even greater electoral success. Winnie Ewing won the Hamilton constituency in a by-election in 1967 with the help of national organizer John McAteer. Consequently, the SNP began to make a serious impact on the political scene. Ewing famously said on the night of her by-election victory, 'stop the world, Scotland wants to get on', and this spirit seemed