Judge and politician. Born in Edinburgh, the son Duncan McLaren (1800-86) of who was Lord Provost of the city, McLaren was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He became an advocate in 1856 and served as Sheriff of Chancery (1869-80). He reorganised the Liberals in Scotland and helped arrange William Gladstone's famous Midlothian campaign of 1879-80. He was briefly elected as a Member of Parliament for the Wigtown Burghs in 1880 and for Edinburgh in 1881, succeeding his father. McLaren was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice (a judge) in 1881 as Lord McLaren.
A keen amateur scientist, McLaren was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1869 and served as President of the Scottish Meteorological Society, a Director of their Ben Nevis observatory, and was involved in setting up the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh on Blackford Hill. He awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Edinburgh (1882), Glasgow (1883) and Aberdeen (1906).
He died in Brighton and is buried in Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh.
