James Reid, Baron Reid


James Scott Cumberland Reid, Baron Reid, was a Scottish Unionist politician and judge. His reputation is as one of the most outstanding judges of the 20th century.

Life

He was born on 30 July 1890 in Drem, East Lothian, the son of James Reid, a Solicitor of the Supreme Courts, and his wife, Kate Scott. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, he then studied law at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1910 and LLB in 1911. He was admitted as an advocate in 1914.
He was commissioned into the 8th battalion Royal Scots in World War I and was seconded to the Machine Gun Corps in 1916, serving in Mesopotamia and reaching the rank of Major. He resigned his commission in 1921. He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1932.
He was Member of Parliament for Stirling and Falkirk from October 1931 until his defeat in November 1935, and for Glasgow Hillhead from June 1937 until September 1948.
He served as Solicitor General for Scotland from June 1936 until June 1941, and as Lord Advocate from June 1941 until July 1945, and was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1941.
From 1945 to 1948 he was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. In 1948 he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and received a Law Life Peerage as Baron Reid, of Drem in East Lothian. He sat as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until 1975. He was one of very few people to be appointed a Law Lord straight from the Bar, without any intervening judicial experience.
Reid was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1967.
He died in London on 29 March 1975.

Family

In 1933, he married Mrs Esther Mary Brierley, a widow.
They did not have any children.

Cases decided

Selected judgments

In Shaw v DPP, UKHL 1 rendered on 4 May 1961, Reid said,
In the same case, he went on to say: