William Prosser, Lord Prosser


William David Prosser, Lord Prosser QC LLB PC was a Scottish judge and an advocate for the arts in Edinburgh.

Personal life and education

Prosser was the younger son of Edinburgh solicitor David Griffiths Prosser WS MC and his wife Edith Mary Dallas. He was born on 23 November 1934 in Edinburgh. The family lived at 4 Bellevue Crescent, a very large Georgian townhouse originally belonging to his grandfather, Sir John Prosser WS LLD.
He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy where he was a senior Ephor. Prosser read classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he finished with a double first, and then read law at University of Edinburgh. For his National Service, he was commissioned into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and served in British Guyana. From 1986 as a Senator of the College of Justice he was given the title Lord Prosser.
Prosser married Vanessa Lindsay in 1964. They had two sons and two daughters.

Legal career

Prosser became an advocate in 1962, and served as Standing Junior Counsel in Scotland for the Board of Inland Revenue in 1974, and served as Vice Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. In 1986, he became a Court of Session judge and served until his retirement in 2001.
Prosser's legal work also included serving on the Scottish Committee of the Council on Tribunals, as trustee for the Franco-British Council, and as President of the Franco-British Lawyers’ Society. He helped the University of the Highlands and Islands gain university status and served on its court.

Arts advocacy

Prosser served as chairman of the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust from 1988–1998 where he contributed to saving buildings such as Lady Cathcart House, Ayr; Strathleven House, Dumbartonshire; Auchinleck House, Ayrshire and Law’s Close, Kirkcaldy. He was also chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Scottish Architectural Education Trust, and the Sir Walter Scott Club.
Prosser died on March 2015, in Edinburgh, at the age of 80. He is buried with his parents and grandparents in the modern section of Dean Cemetery on Queensferry Road in western Edinburgh. The grave lies towards the south-west.