William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay

Mr. Justice Finlay in 1925

William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay, GBE, PC (15 October 1875 – 30 June 1945) was a British judge and peer. The son of the Lord Chancellor Finlay, his career was marked by accusations of nepotism relating to his rise to professional prominence, though his competence was not questioned.

Early life and career

Finlay was born in London, the son of Robert Finlay (later the Viscount Finlay), who served as the Lord Chancellor between 1916 and 1919 under Lloyd George. Finlay was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union in Easter 1898. 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, which caused some controversy, given his father's position and his short standing at the bar.^[1] He occupied the post until 1914; the same year, 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, often appearing in front of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He also served as Commissioner of Assize for the Northern Circuit in 1921 and for the Midland and Oxford Circuits in 1922.

Judicial career

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 trial of Norman Thorne. His summing-up speech, which singled out the forensic evidence of Sir Bernard Spilsbury for the prosecution over those of several defence witnesses, proved to be controversial. The same year, he chaired a committee on legal aid reform, which issues reports in 1926 and 1928. The commission concluded that no major reform of the English legal aid system was necessary, a concluded much criticised later. Upon the death of his father in 1929 he succeeded to him as the second Viscount Finlay. In 1938 he was made a Lord Justice of Appeal and sworn of the Privy Council.

During World War II he chaired the Contraband Committee of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. He was promoted a 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] Before his death, he had been expected to be the British choice for appointment to the new International Court of Justice.

Character and assessment

Writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Rubin assessed Finlay as "competent but not outstanding" both at the bar and on the bench, although his zealous pursuit of German war criminals in the face of official obstruction and disinterest was praised. On the bench he was said to be dignified and courteous, if slightly pompous.

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