William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay

Finlay in 1925

William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay, GBE, PC (15 October 1875 – 30 June 1945) was a British judge and peer.

Early life and career

Finlay was born in London, the son of Robert Finlay (later the Viscount Finlay), a future Lord Chancellor. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union. He was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1901 and joined the Northern Circuit.^[1]

In 1905, he was appointed junior counsel to the Board of Inland Revenue by his father, then the Attorney-General, an appointment which caused some controversy, given his father's position and his short standing at the bar.^[1] In 1914 he became a King's Counsel.

During World War I, Finlay served Chairman of the Contraband Committee in 1916, Vice-Chairman of the Allied Blockade Committee from 1917 to 1919, and temporary adviser to the Foreign Office for the Paris Peace Conference. For his wartime service, Finlay was appointed KBE in 1920.^[2] He was also appointed to the Légion d'honneur and was made an Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.

After the War, Finlay returned to the bar and served as Commissioner of Assize.

Judge

Finlay was appointed to the High Court in 1924 and assigned to the King's Bench Division. The appointment caused further controversy, as his father was still judicially active. The Law Times remarked that:

"Sir William Finlay must be accounted as a singularly fortunate man … after but 23 years at the Bar, for no apparent professional reason, he is passed over the heads of those who have undoubted prior claims for consideration and whose appointment would have strengthened the King's Bench."^[1]

In 1925, he presided over the controversial trial of Norman Thorne. The same year, he chaired a committee on legal aid reform, which reported in 1926 and 1928. Upon the death of his father in 1929 he succeeded to him as Viscount Finlay. In 1938 he was made a Lord Justice of Appeal and sworn in the Privy Council.

During World War II he chaired the Contraband Committee of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. He was appointed GBE in 1945 and appointed as the British representative to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. His health was affected by a trip to Buchenwald concentration camp and he died on 30 June 1945, when his titles became extinct.^[1]

Family

In 1903, Finlay married Beatrice Marion Hall (1880-1942), daughter of Edward Kirkpatrick Hall. They had one daughter, the Hon. Rosalind Mary Finlay (1914-2002), who married Vice Admiral Sir John Hayes.

References

1. 1 2 3 4 Rubin, G. R. "Finlay, William, second Viscount Finlay (1875–1945)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33133.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31931. p. 6318. 5 June 1920.