John Francis Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington, (6 October 1920 – 31 August 2005) was a British right-wing barrister and judge who served as Master of the Rolls for ten years, from 1982 to 1992. He was the first (and only) President of the short-lived National Industrial Relations Court from 1971 to 1974.
Early and private life
John Francis Donaldson was born in Marylebone, London, on 6 October 1920, to Malcolm (1884–1973) and Evelyn (née Gilroy) Donaldson. His father was a Harley Street-based gynaecologist.
Legal career
Donaldson was called to the Bar in 1946 as a Harmsworth Scholar at the Middle Temple.
In his various roles, Donaldson was involved in many high-profile cases from the 1970s onwards. He presided over the trials of the Guildford Four in 1975 and the Maguire Seven in 1976, and was later criticised in Sir John May's interim report of his inquiry into the miscarriages of justice. At the trials, he achieved notoriety for declaring in his closing remarks that he wished the men had been indicted for high treason, which still carried the death penalty, rather than for murder, which by then no longer carried the death penalty. These remarks bore an uncanny resemblance to the words of another leading judge of the era, Sir Nigel Bridge, who commented in a similar IRA-based miscarriage of justice, the Birmingham Six trial, that he wished that he could still hang murderers.
Donaldson refused to prevent newspapers from publishing the Spycatcher memoir of Peter Wright in 1988, against government policy; and he ruled in 1991 that the then Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker was in contempt of court over an extradition case, in which a man was deported to Zaire while the case was still pending, contrary to a court order.
In retirement
After retiring as a judge in 1992, he wrote reports regarding two maritime accidents involving the grounding of oil tankers and subsequent spills of crude oil: the grounding of the MV Braer off the Shetland Islands in January 1993, in which 85,000 tonnes of oil escaped; and the grounding of the Sea Empress at the entrance to Milford Haven in February 1996, and subsequent escape of more than 70,000 tonnes of oil off the Pembrokeshire coast. The bill was not passed, and Donaldson supported the legal action by the Countryside Alliance to overturn the Hunting Act 2004, which was passed under the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949.
Donaldson died from a heart attack at his home in Lymington on 31 August 2005.
Judgments
- The Angel Bell [1979] 2 Lloyd's Rep 491
- Parker v British Airways Board [1982] Q.B. 1004
- Ronex Properties Ltd v John Laing Construction Ltd [1983] Q.B. 398
- Re T (Adult: Refusal of Treatment)] [1993] Fam. 95
- O'Kelly v Trusthouse Forte plc [1983] ICR 728