The Right Honourable The Lord Strathclyde GBE PC QC |
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Alexander Ure c.1895
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Solicitor General for Scotland | |
In office 1905–1909 |
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Monarch | Edward VII |
Preceded by | James Avon Clyde |
Succeeded by | Arthur Dewar |
Personal details | |
Born | 22 February 1853 |
Died | 2 October 1928 (aged 75) |
Political party | Liberal |
Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
Alexander Ure, 1st Baron Strathclyde GBE PC QC (22 February 1853 – 2 October 1928) was a Scottish politician, judge, and georgist land value tax activist.
Educated at the University of Glasgow he was admitted to membership of the Faculty of Advocates in 1878.
He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Linlithgowshire from 1895 to 1913. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1897.
He served as Solicitor General for Scotland from December 1905 to 1909, and as Lord Advocate from February 1909 to 1913. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Lloyd George's 1909–10 budget. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1909. In 1909, he conducted the prosecution of Oscar Slater for murder; the conviction was later quashed on appeal.
He lived at 31 Heriot Row, a large Georgian townhouse, in Edinburgh's Second New Town.
On leaving Parliament he was raised to the bench as Lord Strathclyde and appointed Lord Justice General, a post he held until 1920. He was raised to the Peerage as Baron Strathclyde, of Sandyford in the County of Lanark, in 1914. In 1917, he was appointed to the Order of the British Empire as a Knight Grand Cross. He is said to have been skilled in cross-examination, and was more suited to life as an advocate than as a judge.