Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan: Difference between revisions

'''Hugh Pattison Macmillan, Baron Macmillan''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|GCVO|PC|FRSE|sep=,|size=100%}} (20 February 1873 &ndash; 5 September 1952) was a Scottish advocate, judge, Parliamentarianparliamentarian and civil servant.<ref name=p187>Pine, p.187</ref>

He was born in [[Glasgow]], the son of the [[Hugh MacMillan (minister)|Rev Hugh Macmillan]] [[Doctor of Divinity|DD]] [[FRSE]] (1833-1903) and Jane Patison (1833-1922). His father was minister of St Peter's Free Church in Glasgow. The family moved to 70 Union Street in [[Greenock]] in 1878.<ref>Greenock Post Office Directories 1878-9</ref>

Hugh was educated at Collegiate School, [[Greenock]] from 1878, then studied at the [[University of Edinburgh]] (M.A. 1st class honours in philosophy, 1893 Bruce of Grangehill and Falkland Scholarship<ref>Macmillan, p.18</ref>) and the [[University of Glasgow]] (LLB).<ref name=p187/> He was indentured for three years to the firm Cowan, Fraser and Clapperton while he studied the Law,<ref>Macmillan, p.22</ref> in which he distinguished himself by winning the Cunningham Scholarship for Conveyancing in the year 1896.<ref name=p23>Macmillan, p.23</ref> He was admitted to the [[Faculty of Advocates]] in 1897 with a public defence of an assigned Thesis ''De diversis regulis juris antiqui'',<ref>Macmillan, p.30</ref> and later became [[King's Counsel]] in 1912.<ref name=p187/><ref name="gazette-1912-kc">{{London Gazette | issue = 28605 | date = 7 May 1912 |page=3280 | city = London }}</ref> For a time he wrote articles on conveyancing for Green's ''Encyclopedia of Scots Law'',<ref name=p23/> and was Editor of the quarterly ''Juridical Review'' between 1900 and 1907.<ref>Macmillan, p.42</ref>

During the [[World War I|First World War]] Macmillan served as Assistantassistant Directordirector of Intelligence for the Ministry of Information.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0 902 198 84 X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=30 July 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1923 he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]. His proposers were [[Edward Theodore Salvesen]] (Lord Salvesen), [[William Archer Tait]], [[Robert Blyth Greig]] and Sir [[Edmund Taylor Whittaker]]. He resigned from the Society in 1931.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0 902 198 84 X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=30 July 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

When the Labour government of [[Ramsay MacDonald]] was elected in 1924 -– the first time the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] had taken power -– it had no [[QueenKing's Counsel|KC]]s in Scotland amongst its Parliamentaryparliamentary representation. Macdonald therefore turned to Macmillan, whose reputation at the Bar was considerable, to take the job of [[Lord Advocate]], even though he was a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]. He served as Lord Advocate from February<ref name="gazette-feb-1924-lord-adv">{{London Gazette | issue = 13996 | date = 12 February 1924 |page=225 | city = Edinburgh }}</ref> to November 1924,<ref name=p188>Pine, p.188</ref> and was sworn of the [[Privy Council]] on 16 April that year.<ref>Macmillan, p.84</ref>

On 3 February 1930, he was appointed to replace [[John Hamilton, 1st Viscount Sumner|Lord Sumner]] as a [[Lord of Appeal in Ordinary]],<ref>Macmillan, p.141</ref> and was simultaneously created a [[life peer]] as '''Baron Macmillan''' ''of [[Aberfeldy, Scotland|Aberfeldy]] in the [[County of Perth]],<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33576 |date=4 February 1930 |page=719}}</ref> one of few men to have been appointed a judge in the [[House of Lords]] straight from the Bar.<ref name=p188/> Macmillan sat as a [[Law Lord]] until 1947 except for a brief period at the outbreak of [[World War II|Second World War]] when he was [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Minister of Information]].<ref name="Macmillan, p.147">Macmillan, p.147</ref> However he came in for much criticism in this role and was soon replaced. The Ministry of Information was located in the [[Senate House (University of London)|Senate House]], [[University of London]], and the '''Macmillan Hall''' there is named after him.

He held a number of chairmanships, including the [[Macmillan Committee|Committee on Finance and Industry]] in 1929–31, the Canadian [[Royal Commission on Banking and Currency]] in 1933, the [[Pilgrim Trust]] from 1935–521935 to 1952, the [[Political Honours Committee]] from 1935–521935 to 1952, the Court of the [[University of London]] from 1929–431929 to 1943, and the [[BBC]] Advisory Council from 1936–461936 to 1946. He was a member of the [[Wytham Abbey]] Trust, founded by Colonel [[Raymond ffennell]].<ref>Macmillan, p.296</ref> He was elected Trustee of the [[British Museum]],<ref>Macmillan, p.156</ref> and was in 1934 principal proponent and founder of the [[Stair Society]], which was designed "to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of Scots Law by the publication of original documents and by the reprinting and editing of works of sufficient rarity or importance."<ref>Macmillan, p.214</ref>

He provided the 1934 Rede Lecture at Cambridge, the 1934 Maudsley Lecture, the 1935 Henry Sidgwick MemrialMemorial Lecture, and in 1936 a Broadcast National Lecture. These were bound as ''Law and Other Things''. He was appointed in 1941 to the Professorship of Law at the Royal Academy of Arts, and was chosen an Honorary Member by the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]. In 1948 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He delivered the Andrew Lang Memorial Lecture, and the Commemorative Oration at the University of Glasgow's 500th anniversary in 1951.<ref>Macmillan, p.160-2</ref>

He was appointed a [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Counsellor]] in 1924 and was awarded the [[Royal Victorian Order|GCVO]] in 1937.<ref name=p188/> He would earn the distinction of LLD from his two ''alma matres'',<ref>Macmillan, p.24</ref> Edinburgh on 17 July 1924.,<ref>Macmillan, p.94</ref> again in 1931 at the University of London,<ref>Macmillan, p.278</ref> and again in 1932 at the University of St. Andrews.<ref>Macmillan, p.286</ref> In North America, he was awarded LLDs from [[McGill University]], [[Queen's University at Kingston|Queen's University]] at Kingston, [[Dalhousie University]] and [[Columbia University]], and a DCL from [[Case Western Reserve University]], as well as being inducted into the [[Order of the Coif]].

He was unanimously elected 13 May 1924 the first Honorary Bencher of [[Inner Temple]].<ref>Macmillan, p.96</ref> He was elected honorary member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of the [[Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers]], and of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers.<ref>Macmillan, p.65-6</ref>

He married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Katherine Grace Marshall,<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0 902 198 84 X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=30 July 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>, on 27 July 1901.<ref>Macmillan, p. 43</ref>

* [[Donoghue v Stevenson]] 1932 AC 562