Background
During the London Blitz he was sent to Cornwall as many other children of the time and later in life settled in the nearby town of Southend-on-Sea where he became, in time, chairman of the council"s planning committee and mayor.
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Ken MacKinnon
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He is known as the father of sociolinguistics. He took a double degree in sociology and economics at the London School of Economics, followed by National Service in Germany. Following his return from Germany, he taught in Essex secondary schools and technical colleges, and was the head of department at the Barking College of Technology and subsequently was senior lecturer and reader at the Hatfield Polytechnic amongst various other appointments.
Although not a native speaker of Gaelic, he taught himself Gaelic when he took an interest in the language.
He subsequently took a master"s degree and was made a senior research fellow of the Social Science Research Council and used the opportunity to embark on studying the sociolinguistic situation of the Isle of Harris between 1972 and 1974 and has been heavily involved in the discipline ever since. He was also on the board of MG Alba between 2008-2011.
He has an honorary professorship at the University of Aberdeen, and is a reader emeritus at the University of Hertfordshire. He tutors for the Open University in social sciences, education and language studies.
Membership
He was also a member of MAGOG between 2002 and 2004, a body providing advice on to Scottish ministers, and which produced the Meek Report(2002), and was made a member of Bòrd na Gàidhlig in 2004.
