Henry Wilson, Baron Wilson of Langside

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QC
Lord Advocate
In office
1967–1970
Solicitor General for Scotland
In office
1965–1967
Personal details
Born
Henry Stephen Wilson

21 March 1916
SDP (1990) (1990–92)
Non-affiliated (from 1992)
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow

Henry Stephen Wilson, Baron Wilson of Langside,

QC (21 March 1916 – 23 November 1997) was a Scottish lawyer, Labour politician and life peer.[1][2]

Life and career

The son of Margaret Young and James Wilson, a solicitor, he was educated at the

took silk
in 1965.

He was

Scottish Courts Administration from 1971–74 and Sheriff Principal of Glasgow and Strathkelvin
from 1975–77.

He was aboard the cruise ship Lakonia when she caught fire and sank with the loss of 128 lives in 1963.

Politics

Wilson was the unsuccessful

Privy Counsellor in 1967. On 3 March 1968 he was created a life peer with the title Baron Wilson of Langside, of Broughton in the County of the City of Edinburgh, taking the Labour whip.[4][5]

Although a faithful Labour supporter throughout the post-war years, Wilson was one of those who experienced dissatisfaction with the party's performance in government during the latter stages of the 1970s, as it failed to combat declining economic performance and trade union militancy. He was also a critic of its support for Scottish devolution, campaigning against the establishment of a Scottish Assembly both before and during the 1979 referendum on the matter.[6] Thus, at the 1979 United Kingdom general election, The Glasgow Herald reported him as one of several former Labour MPs and ministers who were instead backing Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives.[7]

Following the breakaway of a number of Labour MPs to form the

successor party for a further two years, thereafter sitting in the House of Lords as a crossbencher until his death.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ Obituary in The Independent, 18 December 1997.
  2. ^ Auction of warrant appointing to Barony
  3. ^ "No. 18398". The Edinburgh Gazette. 29 October 1965. p. 713.
  4. ^ "No. 44802". The London Gazette. 4 March 1969. p. 2349.
  5. ^ Introduction of Lord Wilson in House of Lords
  6. ^ "New joint chairmen for 'Scotland is British'", The Times, 16 November 1977, p. 6.
  7. ^ Russell, William (30 April 1979). "Ex-Labour MP defects to Tories". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 2023 (online ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  9. ^ "Obituaries: Lord Wilson of Langside", The Times, 1 December 1997, p. 25.
Legal offices
Preceded by Solicitor General for Scotland
1965–1967 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Gordon Stott
 Lord Advocate
1967–1970 		Succeeded by
Norman Wylie
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