Tribute has been paid to Labour peer, Lord Murray Elder of Kirkcaldy, who has died aged 73.
Murray Elder, one of the world’s longest-surviving heart transplant patients, was general secretary of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1988 until 1992.
He then went on to serve as chief of staff to then Labour leader and fellow Scot, the late John Smith.
Lord Elder was a schoolfriend of former Prime Minster Gordon Brown when they grew up in Kirkcaldy.
Mr Brown wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Mourning the death last night of my Kirkcaldy schoolfriend (Lord) Murray Elder, former chief of staff to John Smith and Donald Dewar. One of the world’s longest surviving heart transplant patients, his life was a study in personal courage and great achievement against many odds.”
Dundee role
Lord Elder had been chancellor of Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee for 19 years and was also the chairman of the college council.
Abi Abubaker, principal and vice-chancellor of Al-Maktoum said: “Lord Elder was a long and good friend of Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education.
“He was chancellor for 19 years and, in that time, he offered tremendous support, advice and encouragement for all the staff and students in Dundee.
“He was a great advocate of further and higher education and a strong supporter of widening access to education. He will be missed by everyone from the college and we send our deepest sympathy to his family.”
He was born Thomas Murray Elder in May 1950 but was always known as Murray.
After education at Kirkcaldy High School, he gained a degree in economic history from the University of Edinburgh.
Between 1972 and 1980 he worked for the Bank of England before becoming heavily involved with the Labour Party in Scotland.
Tony Blair
After serving as general secretary and with John Smith, he became an adviser to Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
In Scotland, Lord Elder was a Labour executive member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and a special adviser to Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar, who went on to become the Scotland’s inaugural first minister.
In 1999, he was a made a life peer, Baron Elder of Kirkcaldy, and sat in the House of Lords.
He served on the House of Lords’ economic affairs select committee, was a patron of the Adam Smith Foundation, an adviser to the Smith Institute, and a member of Fife College’s fundraising unit.
Lord Murray was close to death in 1988 when a nationwide search for a suitable organ was launched. It was successful and he underwent the heart transplant operation at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.
The operation gave him a new lease of life and, 19 years after the operation, he had climbed all of Scotland’s Munros; only the third parliamentarian to do so.
In an interview after he climbed the last of the 284 mountains, Lord Elder said: “I started to climb the Munros before my operation, but back then never thought I would ever be fit enough again to finish them.
“In part I was determined to finish the Munros to show that transplant surgery need not restrict a person’s ability to lead a normal life.
“It’s a tribute to the skills of the team at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the National Health Service that I have been able to do this,” he added.
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