Craigie Mason Aitchison (26 January 1882 – 2 May 1941) was a Scottish politician and judge.

Early life

Mason was born on 16 January 1882 in Falkirk, the second son of Elizabeth Mason Craigie and Revd James Aitchison, senior minister of the Erskine United Free Church. He was educated at Falkirk High School and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

where he was the Vans Dunlop Scholar in Mental Philosophy and Muirhead Prizeman in Civil Law. He graduated with an MA in 1903 and an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1907.

Career

Aitchison became an advocate in 1907. He was particularly effective as a defence counsel in criminal cases, and was regarded as the best advocate before a jury since Sheriff Comrie Thomson. He was noted for the Bickerstaff and John Donald Merritt cases. He was made a King's Counsel in 1923. He worked with

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

and others to secure the release of

Oscar Slater Oscar Joseph Slater (8 January 1872 – 31 January 1948) was the victim of a miscarriage of justice in Scotland. Wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death, he was freed after almost two decades of hard labour at Scotland’s HM Priso ...

, the victim one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice of the early 20th century. Aitchison who was leading Counsel at the appeal in 1929 gave a 14-hour speech.

Politics and law officer

An unsuccessful

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate for Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire in November 1922 and December 1923, he joined the Labour Party and contested The Hartlepools at the October 1924 general election and Glasgow Central in May 1929 — where he reduced a Unionist majority of nearly 6,000 to only 627. He was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Kilmarnock at a by-election in October 1929, and sat for the constituency until October 1933 as a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

then National Labour member.Craig, p. 616 He was appointed as

Lord Advocate His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...

in June 1929 serving in the

Second Labour Government The second (symbol: s) is the unit of Time in physics, time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally t ...

alongside Sir William Jowitt, the new

Attorney General for England and Wales His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is one of the law officers of the Crown and the principal legal adviser to sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales. The attorney general maintains the Attorney G ...

whose defeat at The Hartlepools in 1924 was attributed to Aitchison's drawing votes to the Liberals. He was made a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...

in 1929, and served as Lord Advocate until October 1933. He was then raised to the bench as

Lord Justice Clerk The Lord Justice Clerk is the second most senior judge in Scotland, after the Lord President of the Court of Session. Originally ''clericus justiciarie'' or Clerk to the Court of Justiciary, the counterpart in the criminal courts of the Lord ...

, with the judicial title Lord Aitchison, at which point he automatically resigned his seat in the House of Commons, which resulted in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

Personal life

In 1919, he married Charlotte Mary Forbes Jones (''d''. 1970), daughter of James Jones of Torwood Hall, Larbert. They had two sons, one of whom, John Ronald Craigie Aitchison (1926–2009) was a noted painter and a member of the Royal Academy.

Sources

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aitchison, Craigie Mason 1882 births 1941 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Scottish Liberal Party parliamentary candidates Scottish Labour MPs Lord Advocates Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom 20th-century King's Counsel Senators of the College of Justice Scottish King's Counsel UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 National Labour (UK) politicians People educated at Falkirk High School