INAUGURATION DEMONSTRATION OF THE NATIONAL PARTY OF SCOTLAND. Held in King's Park, Stirling, on Saturday, 23rd June, 1928.

First edition. 15pp. Original printed wrappers. A very good copy, the staples removed, leaving a trace of rusting, and with a little light marking to the edges of the covers. The contents remain clean and bright throughout.

A scarce pamphlet marking the birth of the National Party of Scotland - the first Scottish nationalist political party, and the first to campaign for Scottish self-determination. The National Party of Scotland was formed after John MacCormick (1904-1961) of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party seeking Scottish Home Rule to convene. This meeting was presided over by Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936), the influential Scottish politician, writer, journalist and adventurer, who, beginning as an MP for the Liberal Party, had subsequently become the first ever socialist member of the UK Parliament, a founder, and the first president, of the Scottish Labour Party, and an outspoken advocate for Scottish independence. An amalgamation of the GUSNA with the Scots National League, Lewis Spence's Scots National Movement and the Scottish Home Rule Movement, the NPS's inauguration took place in Stirling on 23rd June 1928 on the 609th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. The present pamphlet was issued to mark this event, detailing its proceedings and recording the speeches made by MacCormick, Cunninghame Graham and others. It begins by setting the scene thus: "Carried forward on a spate of oratory and to the accompaniment of strains from the World's Champion Pipers, the Caln M'Lean Pipe Band, the new National Party of Scotland was inaugurated". In 1934 the NPS merged with the Scottish Party to form the Scottish National Party (SNP), of which Cunninghame Graham served as the first president. Only two institutional copies are recorded on Copac (Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh). An important document of modern Scottish history.