George Gordon Stott

George Gordon Stott, Lord Stott, PC (22 December 1909 – 12 April 1999) was a Scottish advocate, sheriff and Lord Advocate, the chief legal officer for the Crown and government in Scotland. In retirement Gordon Stott published three volumes of extracts from the diaries he had been keeping throughout his legal career.

Personal life Gordon Stott was born in 1909, youngest son of Rev Dr George Stott, minister of Cramond Kirk, Edinburgh, and Flora Stott. He attended the village school, and went on to Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University, where he graduated with first-class honours in Classics and won the Vans Dunlop Scholarship in law.

He was a pacifist, and during World War II he was a conscientious objector, working on the land as alternative to military service. On behalf of other conscientious objectors, he acted as pro bono counsel at tribunals for conscientious objectors. From 1939 to 1944 he edited a Labour journal, the Edinburgh Clarion. becoming Queen's Counsel in 1952. His pleading was a model of forceful economy and he was a formidable opponent having the adverse judgements of Lord Clyde (Lord President of the Court of Session) regularly overturned when Stott appealed them to the House of Lords.

At the start of the Wilson Labour government of 1964 Stott was appointed as privy councillor and Lord Advocate, the senior law officer in Scotland As Lord Advocate – he became known as Lord Stott – he enjoyed total independence from the government as a public prosecutor and legal adviser. He was responsible for implementing several reforms in the law and for establishing the Scottish Law Commission. So he became a Senator of the College of Justice (High Court judge in Scotland) in the First Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session appeal court. Dealing with custody cases he would often chat informally with the children involved. A boy had said he would prefer to stay with his father. Stott wrote "When I asked him why, he said 'It's the mince. It's not watery'."

He retired at the statutory age of 75 in 1984.

Publications