James Avon Clyde, Lord Clyde

James Avon Clyde, Lord Clyde, (14 November 1863 – 16 June 1944) was a Scottish politician and judge.

Early life and career

Clyde was born on 14 November 1863, the son of Dr James Clyde LLD (1821-1912). he was the leading junior counsel in Scotland. to December 1905.

He was Coalition Unionist member for Edinburgh North from 1918 to 1920.

He was also appointed to the Dardanelles Commission. He served as Lord Advocate from December 1916 to 1920 in Lloyd George's coalition government. He was appointed to the bench and served as Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session from 1920

to 1935, with the judicial title Lord Clyde. During this time Lord Clyde gave this famous quote (in taxation circles) in the case of Ayrshire Pullman Motor Services v Inland Revenue [1929] 14 Tax Case 754, at 763,764:

"No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel in his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow, and quite rightly, to take every advantage which is open to it under the Taxing Statutes for the purposes of depleting the taxpayer's pocket. And the taxpayer is in like manner entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue."</blockquote>

He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Kinross-shire,