Glasgow is divided into thirty-seven wards - and Cathcart is No 37. Each year in April a public meeting of electors is held in the Couper Institute, which all residents should attend. Public notices inform date and time - yet how many avail themselves of this opportunity.
A committee is elected, consisting of 36 members whose name must be on the Register of Electors for the division of the Ward for which they are elected and they must be residents therein. For election of the committee, Cathcart Ward is divided into three diVision, West, Central and South, each represented by 12 members one third of whom retire in rotation annually. They meet to discuss district matters, usually with one Ward Councillor present.
Member of Parliament for Cathcart at present is Mr Edward Taylor, M.A., a most energetic and hardworking young man. He has made known his constituency at Westminster and elsewhere as never before. The only time that Cathcart was represented by a Labour MP was back in 1922 when Captain Hay took his seat in the House. It was remarked at the time that Mr Hay was the only MP representing a Scottish constituency which had a Welsh name - but the identity of the knowledgeable one is not disclosed.
Prior to passing of the Representation of the People Act in 1918, Cathcart Ward, a part of the City of Glasgow from 1912, was still included in the Renfrewshire Eastern Constituency. Our first MP in 1918 was John William Pratt, followed 1n 1922 by Captain John Primrose Hay; in 1923 Robert McDonald; 1929 John Train D.L.,J.P.; 1942 Francis Beattie, D.L., J,P.; 1946 John Henderson, D.L., J.P.; and in 1964 by Edward Taylor, M.A.
Names and addresses of the MP, Councillors and Ward Secretary can always be found in the Couper Institute Library. As the Register of Electors includes many surrounding districts within the Cathcart Ward and numbers 39,000, it is difficult to estimate now the population of Cathcart proper.
And so, from tiny hamlet or clachan, Cathcart has grown. It combines the very old, typified by the Castle, with modern and efficient industry. Unlike new towns and housing estates, its rich history in a handsome setting contrasts harmoniously with houses presenting many varied degrees of affluence. Let us hope that good planning, with local pride at heart, prevails in meeting the challenge of the future. If these pages have helped to preserve a little,of what has gone before, then something has been achieved.
In conclusion
This community began by the river over a thousand years ago.
Soon the "Fort on the Cart" may be no more. All things pass, the river flows steadily on.....
0, scenes of my childhood and dear
to my heart
Those happy years I've known in
Cathcart.
Jean (Liddle) Marshall