Sir John Lorne MacLeod (20 October 1873 – 7 September 1946) was a Scottish

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

and public servant who served as Lord Provost and

Lord-Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

from 1916 to 1919.

Life

MacLeod was born at

Inveraray Inveraray ( or ; gd, Inbhir Aora meaning "mouth of the Aray") is a town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is on the western shore of Loch Fyne, near its head, and on the A83 road. It is a former royal burgh, the traditional county town of Arg ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

, the son of John Macleod, prison governor of

Inveraray Jail Inveraray Jail, formerly County Buildings, is a municipal structure in Church Square, Inveraray, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The structure, which was the headquarters of Argyll County Council as well as a jail and a courthouse, is a Category A l ...

and his wife, Mary Mctavish of Tobermory.''Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950'' He studied law at 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 ...

and qualified as a solicitor in 1895. He practised as a partner in Whigham & MacLeod at 25 Albany Street and lived in a large Georgian townhouse at 72 Great King Street. He served as a member of

Edinburgh City Council The City of Edinburgh Council is the Local government in Scotland, local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is Subdivisions of Scotland#Council areas, the second most populo ...

from 1905 to 1919, representing

Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...

Ward, and was City Treasurer from 1912 to 1914. In 1916 he succeeded Sir

Robert Kirk Inches Sir Robert Kirk Inches (c. 1845 – 2 August 1918) was a Scottish goldsmith and silversmith. He co-founded the jewellerHamilton & Inchesand served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1912 to 1916. Early life He was born around 1845. He was the s ...

as Lord Provost.Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 10 September 1946 From 1925 until his death he was chairman of the

Scottish Life Assurance Company Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English * Scottish national identity, the Scottish id ...

. He served as Food Commissioner for Scotland from 1920 to 1921 and was a member of the Royal Commission on Food Prices in 1924–1925. He was also chairman of the Consumers' Committees for both Scotland and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and from 1924 to 1929 served as chairman of the

Jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

Trade Board for Great Britain. He was chairman of the

General Nursing Council The General Nursing Council for England and Wales was established by the Nurses Registration Act 1919 to administer the register of nurses. It was responsible for deciding the rules for admission to the register. There were nine lay members an ...

for Scotland from 1921 until his death. Having already been

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

, MacLeod was appointed

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(GBE) in the

1920 Birthday Honours The 1920 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were p ...

for his services as Lord Provost of Edinburgh during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. From 1933 to 1944 Sir John served as the tenth president of the

Cockburn Association The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh's Civic Trust) is one of the world's oldest architectural conservation and urban planning monitoring organisations, founded in 1875. The Scottish judge Henry Cockburn (1779–1854) was a prominent campaigner t ...

, the influential Edinburgh conservation organisation that was founded in 1875. He died on 7 September 1946 and was buried in

Warriston Cemetery Warriston Cemetery is a cemetery in Edinburgh. It lies in Warriston, one of the northern suburbs of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built by the then newly-formed Edinburgh Cemetery Company, and occupies around of land on a slightly sloping si ...

. The currently (2019) toppled monument lies towards the west end of one of the main east-west paths north of the central vaults.

Family

His sister Phoebe married George Whigham (died 1909), who later became his business partner. Phoebe died at Woodbine Cottage in

Colinton Colinton ( gd, Baile Cholgain) is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated south-west of the city centre. Up until the late 18th century it appears on maps as Collington. It is bordered by Dreghorn to the south and Craiglockhart to the north ...

in 1925 and is buried with John in Warriston Cemetery.

Portrait

His full length portrait (in military uniform) by

George Fiddes Watt :'' Not to be confused with George Frederic Watts''. George Fiddes Watt (15 February 1873 – 22 November 1960) was a Scottish portrait painter and engraver. Biography Watt studied art at Gray's School of Art, Edinburgh and the Royal Scottis ...

is held at Edinburgh City Chambers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macleod, John 1873 births 1946 deaths People from Argyll and Bute Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish solicitors Lord Provosts of Edinburgh Knights Bachelor Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Deputy Lieutenants of Edinburgh Burials at Warriston Cemetery