hour, the local Liberal Association decided to select the then 76-year-old Francis Norie-Miller, (who had been the Liberal candidate at Perth at the 1931 general election) as they had been told that the Conservatives would be willing to support him as the National government candidate. The decision angered Liberal Party headquarters and they sent the Scottish Liberal Whip, Sir Robert Hamilton, to speak to a meeting of the local Association. The Association ungallantly refused to hear him however and Hamilton issued a statement saying how the decision struck at the very heart of Liberalism in Perth and throughout Scotland. Scott was also understandably unhappy. He said he would have been willing to step aside for Norie-Miller if he had been standing as a Liberal but he was trying to be loyal to a free and independent Liberal Party. In the end, supported in his decision by the party in London whose object was damage-limitation in clashes with the Simonite Liberal Nationals, Scott opted not to fight a hopeless cause and Norie-Miller, was elected as the Liberal National MP for Perth in the by-election of 16 April 1935. Perhaps significantly, Norie-Miller did not stand for re-election at the 1935 general election a few months later when the contest was a straight fight between Unionist and Labour candidates, resulting in a large Conservative majority. Scott was next approached to stand at the Combined Scottish Universities by-election in January 1936 as an Independent Liberal. He declared he was willing to do so if sufficient support was forthcoming but clearly he felt this was not the case as he later announced he would not be standing. In the event, the election was won comfortably by former prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, the National Labour candidate. Death Scott died suddenly at his home 5, Moray Place, Edinburgh on 30 October 1939. Publications Agriculture and Land Value Taxation: Three Papers (with F C R Douglas & A R McDougal), London 1930 The Land Value Tax (notes on the application of the Act to Scotland) with H Samuels and P Fores, London 1931 The Law of Smallholdings in Scotland, Edinburgh 1933 References External links 1876 births 1939 deaths Scottish Liberal Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies UK MPs 1929–1931 People educated at Forres Academy Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of London