Whilst getting involved in the Folk Britannia thread and the discussion regarding Ewan MacColl's army desertion in WW2, I came across another site that implied that his accent was an affectation (i.e. Fake!).

Being still very much a newbie to the folk world I had always assumed, from his name and his accent, that he was a Scot, and I always found it slighty strange that he was so heavily involved in English music.

Now being enlightened to the fact that he was originally James Miller from Salford before changing his name some of this makes sense, but can anybody explain how he came by his (to my ear) distictly (though slightly odd) Scots accent and new name?

I am aware that his parents were Scottish, but I've got quite a few cousins whose parents were Scots and they have the accent of where they grew up (London and Manchester) without any trace of north of the border except in some of the phrases they use.