Education
McNeil was educated at Woodside School and the University of Glasgow, trained as an engineer and worked as a journalist on a Scottish national newspaper.
McNeil was educated at Woodside School and the University of Glasgow, trained as an engineer and worked as a journalist on a Scottish national newspaper.
He chaired Glasgow Trades Council and stood for Parliament unsuccessfully in Galloway in 1929 and 1931, in Glasgow Kelvingrove in 1935 and in Ross and Cromarty in 1936. Following the 1945 election, McNeil became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Through his position at the Foreign Office, he was vice-president of the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 and leader of the British delegation to the Economic Commission for Europe, 1948.
lieutenant was later revealed that his personal assistant and private secrerary at the time, Guy Burgess, was a Soviet agent, although McNeil never came under suspicion.
He served as Secretary of State for Scotland from February 1950 until October 1951 in the government of Clement Attlee. McNeil died shortly after keeping his seat in the 1955 election.
The was a swimming pool in the town of Greenock named in honour of McNeil. The foundation stone was laid by McNeil"s wife on 9 October 1963.
The baths were demolished in 2002 after the Greenock Waterfront Leisure Centre opened.
38th United Kingdom Parliament. 39th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament.
41st United Kingdom Parliament]
He was a member of Glasgow Town Council 1932-1938.
He was elected Member of Parliament for Greenock unopposed in a wartime by-election in 1941. He was promoted to Minister of State at the Foreign Office in October 1946, de facto deputy to the Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, and appointed a member of the Privy Council.