ONE of Scotland's most distinguished legal figures is retiring.
Sheriff Principal John Mowat, QC, of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and
Galloway, will be succeeded by Sheriff Graham Cox, at present a Sheriff
at Dundee.
The appointment of Sheriff Cox, 59, by the Queen on the recommendation
of the Secretary of State for Scotland, will take effect from October 1,
the Scottish Courts Administration said yesterday.
Among Mr Mowat's duties in recent years was the task of conducting the
fatal accident inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster in which 270 people
died.
During the #3m hearing he heard millions of words of evidence over a
61-day period.
He was born in Manchester 70 years ago and educated at Glasgow High
School and Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh before graduating at
Glasgow University.
He served as a flight- lieutenant in RAF Transport Command during the
Second World War. After the war he became a journalist, and in 1952 he
was called to the Bar.
He was parliamentary candidate for the Scottish Liberal Party in
Caithness and Sutherland in 1955.
Eight years later he was appointed Sheriff at Dunfermline before
moving to Cupar. Mr Mowat then returned to the west of Scotland as
Sheriff of Glasgow and Strathkelvin.
He took silk in 1988 and shortly afterwards was appointed to his
present post. That same year he was elected president of the Sheriffs'
Association.
His successor, who has been an advocate since 1962, holds the same
position in the association.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article