The Lord Emslie, PC, MBE, FRSE, (1919-2002)
Michael Rhodes
the Court of Session, Scotland's senior judge from 1972 to 1989, died
20 November, 2002, aged 82.
As an advocate, he had earlier represented the 11th Duke of Argyll in
a scandalous divorce case.
George Carlyle Emslie was born 6 December, 1919, at Glasgow, the son
of Alexander Emslie, a manager with the North British and Mercantile
Insurance Company, by his wife, Jessie Blair Emslie.
He was educated at Glasgow High School and the city's university, from
which he graduated in Arts and Law.
His studies were, however, interrupted by the outbreak of war, and
Emslie signed up for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1940.
Between 1942 and 1946, he saw action in North Africa, Italy, Greece
and Austria, and was mentioned in despatches. Emslie graduated from
the staff college at Haifa in 1944 - remarkably, aged only 25 - and
served as a Brigade Major (Infantry) for the next two years.
He returned to Law in 1948 as an Advocate; Advocate Deputy [Sheriff
Courts] 1955; Queen's Counsel [Scotland] 1957; Sheriff of Perth &
Angus, 1963-66.
In 1963, he represented the 11th Duke of Argyll when his divorce case,
which had begun in 1959, finally came before the courts. The Duke of
Argyll, Chief of the Clan Campbell and Hereditary Master of the Royal
Household in Scotland, had sued his wife, the former Margaret
Whigham,for divorce on the grounds of adultery with three men; the
case gripped the country.
When it came to court in Edinburgh, it lasted 11 days and notoriously
brought to light a photograph of the Duchess, naked but for three
strings of pearls, engaged in a sexual act with the "Headless Man" -
so-called because his face did not appear, and whose identity was the
subject of feverish speculation for many years afterwards.
Emslie, representing the Duke, succeeded in introducing into evidence
a racy diary in which the Duchess had listed the qualities of a number
of lovers, who appeared in the narrative with the regularity of hot
dinners.
Lord Wheatley, who eventually concluded that the Duchess was "a
completely promiscuous woman [whose] attitude towards marriage was
what moderns would call enlightened, but which in plain language was
wholly immoral", was persuaded to include the diary after Emslie
pointed out that it had been openly lying on her bedside table, and
could not be regarded as confidential.
In 1965 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. After
becoming a judge (Senator of the College of Justice and Lord of
Session) in 1970, he succeeded Lord Clyde as Lord Justice General. He
also became the first judge, rather than the Lord Advocate of the day,
to become President of the Court of Session. This involved his being
specially sworn of the Privy Council.
Emslie was appointed MBE in 1946, sworn of the Privy Council in 1972,
and created a life peer in 1980, as Baron Emslie, of Potterton in the
District of Gordon. He was appointed FRSE in 1987.
He married Lilias Ann Hannington, who died in 1998. He is survived by
three sons; two followed him into the law. Both now sit on the bench
in Scotland; Derek, is the Hon Lord Kingarth, a Senator of the College
of Justice, & another son, Nigel, is the Hon Lord Emslie, a former
Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh.