David King Murray, Lord Birnam
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Sir Thomas David King Murray KC FRSE (1884 – 5 June 1955) was a Scottish politician and judge.
The son of James Murray, Greenknowe, Bothwell, he was educated at Hamilton Academy, Glasgow High School and Glasgow University.
Called to the Scots Bar in 1910 and fought in World War I as a Lieutenant in the RNVR. He resumed his legal practice and was Junior Counsel to the Treasury in Scotland from 1927 to 1928, Sheriff-Substitute of Lanarkshire at Airdrie from 1928 to 1933, and Senior Advocate Depute from 1936 to 1938. He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1933.[1]
In May 1938, he appointed a Chairman of the Scottish Land Court, succeeding the late Lord MacGregor Mitchell[2][3] He took the judicial title Lord Murray, and chaired the court until June 1941, when he was joined the wartime coalition government as Solicitor General for Scotland.
(preceding another former pupil of the Hamilton Academy, Robert Gibson, Lord Gibson), and was Chairman of the Scottish Coalfields Committee from 1942 to 1944.
He was Solicitor General for Scotland from 1941 to 1945,[4] and was elected at a closely fought by-election in 1943 as the Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for Midlothian and Peebles North. He was knighted in 1941. Murray retired from the House of Commons at the 1945 general election and was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland and Lord of Session in 1945, with the judicial title Lord Birnam.
Sources
References
- ^ "No. 14992". The Edinburgh Gazette. 18 August 1933.
- ^ "Scottish Land Court Chairman". The Times. No. Issue 47991. London, England. 11 May 1938. p. 18. Retrieved 18 January 2016 – via The Times Digital Archive.
{{cite news}}:|issue=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|subscription=ignored (|url-access=suggested) (help) - ^ "No. 15491". The Edinburgh Gazette. 13 May 1938.
- ^ "No. 15820". The Edinburgh Gazette. 13 June 1941.
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- 1884 births
- 1955 deaths
- People educated at Hamilton Academy
- People educated at the High School of Glasgow
- Senators of the College of Justice
- Solicitors General for Scotland
- Scottish knights
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
- UK MPs 1935–45
- Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs
- Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I
- Knights Bachelor
- Chairs of the Scottish Land Court
- Members of the Faculty of Advocates
- Scottish Queen's Counsel
- Queen's Counsel 1901–2000
- People from Bothwell