Norman Russell Wylie
(Lord Wylie)

1923 - 2005

Jurist and politician. Born in Elderslie, the son of a coal merchant, Wylie was educated at Paisley Grammar School. His education was interrupted by service in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II. After the war he attended the Universities of Glasgow, Oxford and Edinburgh, reading history and then Scots law. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1952.

In 1964, he was briefly appointed Solicitor General for Scotland but was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, succeeding Lord John Hope (1912-96). He held the seat by only 44 votes in the General Election of 1966, which saw the Conservatives lose power, but went onto to build a larger majority. Wylie was appointed Lord Advocate in 1970 and was noted for his significant reforms to the administration of the legal system in Scotland. He retired from Parliament in 1974, to be succeeded by Malcolm Rifkind. Wylie went on to serve as a High Court Judge and Senator of the College of Justice (1974-90) and then as a Justice of Appeal in Botswana from (1994-96).

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