John Thomas Wheatley, Baron Wheatley PC, KC (17 January 1908 – 28 July 1988) was a Scottish Labour politician and judge.
Educated at St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow, Mount St. Mary's College, Sheffield, and the University of Glasgow he was admitted as an advocate in 1932. He served in the Royal Artillery and the Judge Advocate Generals' Branch during World War II. He may have been the last advocate to appear before in the Court of Session in military uniform.
He was an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Bute and North Ayrshire in 1945 and for Glasgow Bridgeton in 1946, where he was defeated by the Independent Labour Party candidate. He was elected for Edinburgh East at a by-election in November 1947 and sat for the constituency until 1954.
He was Solicitor General for Scotland from March to October 1947, when he was appointed Lord Advocate. He was appointed a King's Counsel and a Privy Counsellor in 1947. One of his most significant achievements as a politician was the establishment of the legal aid scheme in Scotland. He was appointed to the bench, with the judicial title Lord Wheatley. In 1966 he was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland.[1]
The resulting "Wheatley Report", published in 1969, led to the eventual introduction a new system of Scottish local authorities.[2] In 1970 he was created a life peer, as Baron Wheatley, of Shettleston in the County of the City of Glasgow. In 1972 he was appointed Lord Justice Clerk, a post he held until 1985.
Wheatley was a life-long Roman Catholic. He was also known for hard sentencing of crimes involving sex. While Lord Justice-Clerk (an appeal judge), he exercised his right to sit as a trial judge in criminal cases, and handed out long sentences for such crimes.
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It was Wheatley's memorial service in 1988 which was attended by his old friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern, at the time Lord Chancellor. As a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which strongly disapproves of Roman Catholicism, Mackay was disciplined by his church for having attended the memorial service.
Wheatley's son-in-law is the former father of the House of Commons Tam Dalyell, who married Wheatley's daughter, Kathleen, in 1963.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by George Reid Thomson |
Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East 1947–1954 |
Succeeded by George Willis |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Daniel Patterson Blades |
Solicitor General for Scotland 1947 |
Succeeded by Douglas Johnston |
| Preceded by George Reid Thomson |
Lord Advocate 1947–1951 |
Succeeded by James Latham McDiarmid Clyde |
| Preceded by Lord Grant |
Lord Justice Clerk 1972–1985 |
Succeeded by Lord Ross |