1 The Glasgow politician nicknamed Lazarus because of his many comebacks was a passionate supporter of the city and a proud Glaswegian. Pat Lally was born in 1926 and brought up in the Gorbals, and worked initially in the clothing trade before serving as a radar operator in the RAF during the Second World War.
2 Nicknames tended to follow him around – his campaign to build the Royal Concert Hall resulted in the building being known briefly as ‘Lally’s Palais’ and when he presided over the drive in the early 70s to provide inside toilets in many new tenements, they were quickly christened ‘Lally’s lavvies’.
READ MORE: I Grew Up in Glasgow: Wedding 'scrammel' was big event for Bridgeton kids
3 Pat, who died in 2018 aged 92, was at the helm when Glasgow celebrated other successes, such as the bid for the 1988 Garden Festival, and Glasgow being named the European City of Culture in 1990 and the City of Architecture almost a decade later in 1999. He was committed to transforming the city’s image and promoting its cultural assets – and if that courted controversy, he did not mind.
4 He was married to Peggy, who died in 2007 and the couple had two sons. Pat joined the Labour Party in 1950 and was elected as a Glasgow Corporation councillor in 1966. Although suspended from Labour’s candidates list in 1977 in a housing allocation row, he returned to the City Chambers in 1980. He was council leader of Glasgow City District Council in the early 1990s and became Lord Provost of the new City Council in 1995, serving until 1999.
5 Artist Peter Howson painted two portraits of Lally to celebrate his retirement, one of which raised eyebrows because it depicted him named and had him emerging Lazarus-like from the grave. Lally was appointed as a Commander of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem in 1999. He has also been honoured by France and China.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here