He left Parliament in 1962 to become Lord Justice Clerk, the second most senior judge in Scotland. His work included chairing the eponymous Grant Committee, a major inquiry into the working of Scotland's sheriff courts.
While still in office, Grant died in a traffic collision in the Scottish Highlands, with alcohol in his blood. The crash left two other men dead and a young family seriously injured.[3]
Early life and family
Grant was born on 19 June 1909 in Dufftown, Banff,[4] the son of Edward Grant.[4] His mother was a former Miss Kennedy, who Edward had married in 1908.[5]His grandfather William Grant (1839–1923) was the founder of the distillers William Grant & Sons,[6] producers of Glenfiddich whisky.
Edward had been a solicitor for the Caledonian Railway in Glasgow, before returning to Dufftown to work for the family's Balvenie distillery. He died in September 1911, aged 34, when William was two years old.[5]
Janet Roberts, a granddaughter of the distillery founder and therefore presumably Grant's first cousin, was Scotland's oldest person when she died in 2012 aged 110.[7][8]
Returning to the bar after demobilisation in 1945, Grant rebuilt his legal practice, focusing on trusts, wills, inheritance and company law.[2] In 1949 he became standing junior counsel to the Ministry of Pensions in Scotland.[10] With a reputation for fast work and effective presentation,[2] he took silk in 1951.[11][10]
In the early 1950s, Grant was twice an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for the Labour-held constituency of Edinburgh East.[9] At the 1951 general election, aided by the lack of a Liberal Party candidate, he reduced the majority of the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) and current Lord Advocate, John Wheatley, by nearly half. However at the by-election in April 1954 after Wheatley became a judge, Labour increased its majority to over 5,000,[12] reversing a swing to the government in the previous six by-elections that year.[12]
He took office as Milligan's deputy in the last months of Winston Churchill's premiership. Grant was later selected as the Unionists' prospective parliamentary candidate for the Unionist-held seat of Glasgow Woodside. At the general election in May 1955, Grant's oratory drew over a thousand people to his eve-of-poll rally on 25 May in Hillhead, with hundreds more turned away.[15] Two girls fainted in the excitement, which the Glasgow Herald newspaper suggested set "a minor record for 1955 political meetings".[15] He held the seat[16] for the Unionists, with an increased majority,[17][18] assisted by favourable boundary changes.[19]
His successor as Solicitor General, David Anderson, was not an MP. This left Grant as the government's only spokesperson in the Commons on Scottish legal matters.[10]
As Lord Advocate, Grant held ultimate authority to decide whether any prosecution should proceed. One of the cases which he declined to bring was a charge of obscenity against the publishers of Lady Chatterley's Lover, following the unsuccessful prosecution in England. In November 1960, Grant announced in the Commons that the book was "tedious" and that he would not prosecute.[24] The Labour MP Emrys Hughes congratulated Grant for his "extreme common sense",[24] and a subsequent High Court challenge to his decision failed.[25]
After the death in April 1962 of the Lord Justice Clerk, George Thomson, it was expected that the government would follow the usual practice of appointing the Lord Advocate to the judicial vacancy.[31] The decision was in fact usually made by the Lord Advocate, who traditionally appointed himself,[32] with a substantial rise in salary.[10][33] (In 1967, then Lord Advocate Gordon Stott was elevated to the judiciary, and later joked "I appointed myself, and a jolly good judge I turned out to be").[34]
However, after the office had been vacant for more than three months, the Labour MP James Hoy raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions on 31 July, suggesting that the delay was due to government fears of losing a by-election.[35] (At the 1959 election, Grant had a majority of only 2,084 in his Woodside constituency, down from 4,303 in 1955.[31][36] Woodside was by then considered a marginal seat.[37]).
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan declined a challenge from opposition leader Hugh Gaitskell to explain the reasons for the delay, but promised that a new Justice Clerk would be in place before the Scottish courts resumed on 2 October.[35][31] On 25 September, a week before the courts opened, Grant was raised to the bench with the judicial title Lord Grant.[38] The Glasgow Woodside by-election was held on 22 November. As expected,[39] it was won by the Labour candidate Neil Carmichael.[40]
As a judge, Grant gravitated towards criminal cases. He also undertook a lot of the court's administrative duties.[2]
The Committee on the Sheriff Court, known as the Grant Committee,[42] reported in July 1967, recommending a major reorganisation of the courts to end the long delays in criminal cases. Its recommendations included an increase in the number of full-time sheriffs, the abolition of juries in civil cases in the sheriff courts, increasing the maximum sentence imposed by sheriffs from two years to three, and broadening the recruitment base for sheriffs to include solicitors and academic lawyers.[43]
In 1934, Grant became engaged to Margaret Katharine Milne,[45] a native of Aberdeen.[1] They married in 1936,[2] and lived in Moray Place in the New Town of Edinburgh.[2]
The couple had two sons and a daughter,[46][10] and a reputation for generous hospitality.[2]
Death
Lord Grant died on 19 November 1972 as a result of a road accident near Lynchat, about 3 miles north of Kingussie in Inverness-shire.[4] He was 63 years old.
Driving home alone from Brora[4] in Sutherland, his BMW[3] had overtaken a car transporter on a double bend, and collided with a car traveling in the opposite direction, carrying a young family home to Alness.[3][47] The crash killed the driver of the other car, and seriously injured his wife and their three children, aged between three and seven years.[4][48] All four survivors were taken to hospital in Inverness.[4] A male passenger in their car was killed along with the driver.[3]
The fatal accident inquiry in May 1973 heard that blood tests showed Lord Grant to have consumed the equivalent of two pints of beer or two large whiskies.[3] No alcohol was found in the blood of the other driver.[3]
The injured widow testified that her husband had been driving at under 25 miles per hour (40 km/h).[3] The Inverness Constabulary estimated the impact speed to have been between 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) and 140 miles per hour (230 km/h).[3]
Works
The Sheriff Court: Report by the Committee appointed by the Secretary of State (Cmnd.3248). Edinburgh: H.M.S.O. 1967.
^"3 Ministers Dropped From Government". The Times. No. 53741. London, England. 17 January 1957. p. 8. Retrieved 12 January 2016 – via The Times Digital Archive. Solicitor General for Scotland: Mr William Grant (unchanged)
^ ab"£60M. Claim By Oil Company's Subsidiaries". The Times. No. 55446. London, England. 18 July 1962. p. 15. Retrieved 12 January 2016 – via The Times Digital Archive. Lord Justice Clerk, Mr. Grant will have a salary of £7,800, compared with £5,000 as Lord Advocate
^"Mr. W. Grant To Be Lord Justice Clerk". The Times. No. 55506. London, England. 16 September 1962. p. 12. Retrieved 12 January 2016 – via The Times Digital Archive. Lord Justice Clerk, Mr. Grant will have a salary of £7,800, compared with £5,000 as Lord Advocate
^"General Election: First Results". The Times. No. 54587. London, England. 9 October 1959. p. 7. Retrieved 12 January 2016 – via The Times Digital Archive. Electorate: 44,746. 1955: 48,532. C majority: 2,094. 1955: C maj 4,303
^Dale, Michael (1988). Sore Throats and Overdrafts: An illustrated story of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Edinburgh: Precedent Publications. ISBN0-9512-6502-4.
