The life and times of Alexander ‘Sanny’ Sloan have been recorded in a book on the Ayrshire miner and local MP’s time spent in the region.

Written by his great granddaughter Esther Davies, the book explores Sanny’s life growing up in abject poverty in the mining towns of Ayrshire and how he, against all the odds, and via Barlinnie Prison, became an MP for South Ayrshire in 1939 and played his part in the formation of the welfare state.

Bill Boyd, who spent many years teaching in Ayrshire,said in a review: “This is not just another diary of a career politician, however. It is the story of a father and a grandfather, a touching and sometimes funny recollection of childhood memories in a small Ayrshire village, of people looking out for, and looking after, one another. It is the story of a man who was so used to hardship in his early life that every Friday, as an MP, he thought nothing of walking the last five or six miles home, uphill, after a fourteen-hour train journey from London, because ‘the last bus from Ayr to Rankinston only went as far as the Kerse road-end near Polnessan’.

Sanny Sloan started working the mines from 12-years-old, and lost an eye shortly after he begun due to a pit accident. Despite this Sanny went on to be a major figure in Scottish affairs. He fought for social and economic justice and was part of the Ayrshire Miners’ Union, he was secretary of the Scottish Miners’ Union, he was a county councillor, and eventually became an MP.

He served as MP for South Ayrshire from 1939 until his death in 1945 at the age of 66.

Esther, who lives in Ayr, said of her great grandfather: “He was eloquent, compassionate, selfless and self-sacrificing. He cared for his fellow man and years after he died, people kept on about things he had done to help them and often wept about him.”

Boyd adds: “The book is also a vital chapter in the history of the Labour Party and the mining industry in Scotland, an account which puts flesh and bones on the people whose struggle it was for social justice and workers’ rights, and who would otherwise simply remain as numbers in a list of cold statistics.”

It’s published by the Scottish Labour History Society and Esther hopes that when coronavirus restrictions end it will be available locally.

Cumnock Chronicle: Sanny Sloan, the Miners' MP - his. Life, Times and Family.Sanny Sloan, the Miners' MP - his. Life, Times and Family.