Editing Ramsay MacDonald (section)

=== Lossiemouth ===
MacDonald was born at Gregory Place, [[Lossiemouth]], [[Moray]], [[Scotland]], the [[illegitimate]] son of John MacDonald, a farm labourer, and Anne Ramsay, a housemaid.{{sfn|Marquand|1977|pp=4–5}} Registered at birth as James McDonald (sic) Ramsay, he was known as Jaimie MacDonald. Illegitimacy could be a serious handicap in 19th-century [[Presbyterian]] Scotland, but in the north and northeast farming communities this was less of a problem; in 1868, a report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture noted that the illegitimacy rate was around 15%—nearly every sixth person was born out of wedlock.{{sfn|Marquand|1977|p=6}} MacDonald's mother had worked as a domestic servant at Claydale farm, near [[Alves, Moray|Alves]], where his father was also employed. They were to have been married, but the wedding never took place, either because the couple quarrelled and chose not to marry, or because Anne's mother, Isabella Ramsay, stepped in to prevent her daughter from marrying a man she deemed unsuitable.{{sfn|Marquand|1977|p=5}}
[[File:1887BloodySunday.jpg|thumb|Bloody Sunday]]

Ramsay MacDonald received an elementary education at the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900)|Free Church of Scotland]] school in Lossiemouth from 1872 to 1875, and then at Drainie Parish School. He left school at the end of the summer term in 1881, at the age of 15, and began work on a nearby farm. In December 1881, he was appointed a [[pupil teacher]] at Drainie parish school.{{sfn|Marquand|1977|p=12}} In 1885, he moved to [[Bristol]] to take up a position as an assistant to Mordaunt Crofton, a clergyman who was attempting to establish a Boys' and Young Men's Guild at [[St Stephen's Church, Bristol|St Stephen's Church]].{{sfn|Marquand|1977|p=15}} In Bristol Ramsay MacDonald joined the Democratic Federation, a [[Radicals (UK)|Radical]] organisation, which changed its name a few months later to the [[Social Democratic Federation]] (SDF).<ref>Bryher, Samual: ''An Account of the Labour and Socialist Movement in Bristol'', 1929</ref>{{sfn|Elton|1939|p=44}} He remained in the group when it left the SDF to become the [[Bristol Socialist Society]]. In early 1886 he moved to London.{{sfn|Marquand|1977|pp=9, 17}}