William Grant, Lord Grant

Who was William Grant, Lord Grant?

William Grant, Lord Grant PC was a Scottish Tory politician and judge.

Educated at Fettes College, Oriel College, Oxford and Edinburgh University, he was admitted as an advocate in 1935. He served in the Royal Artillery during World War II.

He was an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh East in 1951 and April 1954, and was elected for Glasgow Woodside in 1955.

He served as Solicitor General for Scotland from 1955 to 1960, and as Lord Advocate from 1960 to 1962. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1958.

In 1962 he was raised to the bench as Lord Justice Clerk, with the judicial title Lord Grant. He presided over the Rachel Ross murder trial for which Paddy Meehan was convicted and served seven years before being pardoned and Lord Grant's summing up in this case was heavily criticised as indeed was his decision to put the case to the jury. The Meehan case was one of Scotland's most notorious miscarriages of justice and several Conservative and Labour Ministers and Lord Advocates failed to act on new evidence.

He died in 1972 as a result of a road accident.