THREE prominent individuals from the West of Scotland have been included in the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

 

They are songwriter and musician Gerry Rafferty who was born in Paisley and Glasgow born folk singer Ray Fisher and Communist Party leader Gordon McLennan.

The trio join a host of famous names who now feature in the publication including actress Elizabeth Taylor, cinema director Ken Russell, artist Lucian Freud, singer Amy Winehouse and disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile.

Gerry Rafferty, who was educated at St Mirin's Academy, became a professional musician in 1969 after joining the Humblebums which also featured Billy Connolly.

He went on to form Stealer's Wheel which had a major hit in 1973 with Stuck in the Middle With You which almost 20 years later was played during an infamous scene in the film Reservoir Dogs.

However, Rafferty is best known for his 1978 hit Baker Street from the album City to City which reached number one in the US album charts knocking the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack off the top spot. He died in January 2011 from liver failure at the age of 63.

Gordon McLennan was born in the Merchant City and left school at 15 to become an engineering apprentice and later an engineering draughtsman.

In1966 he was appointed national organiser of the Communist Party of Great Britain and in 1975 became general secretary, a position he held until his retiral in 1989. He died of cancer in London in May 2011 aged 87.

Ray Fisher was born in the West End and trained as a teacher at Jordanhill Teacher Training College where she started a folk club.

With her brother Archie and Bobby Campbell she formed the skiffle group the Wayfarers.

Ray and Archie went on to make regular appearances on BBC Scotland's teatime programme Here and Now.

She developed into one of the British folk scene's most commanding performers and in 2008, received the English Folk Dance and Song Society's gold badge for excellence in the folk arts. She died of pneumonia in August 2011 aged 70.

David Cannadine, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, defended the decision to include Jimmy Savile in the list of new celebrities to be included in the publication insisting it was not a collection of the "great and good" but a record of people who left their mark on national life.

He said: "The DNB has always included criminals, particularly those whose crimes led to sustained debate on matters of public protection, as in the case of Jimmy Savile.

"To many at his death, Savile was a popular performer and charity worker but the subsequent revelation of his terrible crimes has led to inquiries, police investigations and a change in attitudes towards the protection of children and other vulnerable individuals."