William Watson, Baron Thankerton,
PC (8 December 1873 – 13 June 1948), was a Scottish
Unionist Party politician and judge.
Life
Born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, Watson was the third son of Margaret Bannatyne (1846–1898) and
William Watson, Baron Watson
William Watson, Baron Watson, (25 August 1827 – 14 September 1899) was a Scottish lawyer and Conservative Party politician. He was Lord Advocate, the most senior Law Officer in Scotland, from 1876 to 1880, and was then appointed a Lord of ...
(1827–1899). He was educated at
Winchester College and
Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating with a
Third in Law in 1895. In 1899, he was admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates
The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constit ...
,
taking silk
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or a ...
in 1914.
He was
Procurator to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1918 to 1922, and was an
advocate depute in 1919.
Watson was the
Member of Parliament for
Lanark South from 1913 to 1918
and for
Carlisle from 1924 to 1929.
He held office as
Solicitor General for Scotland from July 1922
to November 1922, and 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 ...
from November 1922
to February 1924 and from November 1924
to May 1929. He was appointed 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 1922. He was raised to the bench as a
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and created a
life peer as Baron Thankerton, of
Thankerton in the
County of Lanark, on 1 May 1929, holding the post until his death at 74 in 1948.
Lord Thankerton's hobby was knitting, and he would practise this while hearing cases.
[Doing Judges a Discourtesy, '']Law Society Gazette
''The Law Society Gazette'' (also known as the ''Gazette'' or the ''Law Gazette'') is a British weekly legal magazine for solicitors in England and Wales published by the Law Society of England and Wales.
While it is available to buy and on su ...
'', 27 June 2016 http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/obiter/doing-judges-a-discourtesy/5056120.article
References
Sources
*
*Concise Dictionary of National Biography
External links
*
1873 births
1948 deaths
20th-century Scottish judges
Solicitors General for Scotland
Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Thankerton
UK MPs 1910–1918
UK MPs 1924–1929
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Sons of life peers
Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
People educated at Winchester College
Members of the Faculty of Advocates
Lord Advocates
Scottish King's Counsel
20th-century King's Counsel
Barons created by George V
Watson
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