W.A. Wilson Memorial Lectures

WA (Bill) Wilson (1928-1994) taught law at the University of Edinburgh from 1960 until his death in 1994 at the age of 65. From 1972 onwards he was the Lord President Reid Professor of Law. His academic interests were exceptionally wide. A memoir of Bill Wilson forms the first chapter of a series of essays which were published in his memory: see Hector L MacQueen (ed), "Scots Law into the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of WA Wilson" (1996).

Following his death a large number of former students and colleagues contributed to a fund for the establishment of a lecture series and the first WA Wilson Memorial Lecture was given on 17 May 1995 by Lord Rodger of Earlsferry in the Playfair Library, Old College in the University of Edinburgh. Lord Rodger began:

“It is a great honour to have been asked to give this lecture. None the less it would surely be wrong to conceal that for me as for everyone this occasion is tinged with much more than a little sadness. How much better it would have been if we were not here in memory of Bill Wilson, but rather we could still feel that, if fortune were good to us, we might see him approaching, ready for a chat, ready to exchange the latest gossip or to share news of some absurdity which he had detected in the far reaches of the statutory instruments which no one save him ever penetrated … He had an abundance of friends and in the days following his death you could meet few people in Scottish legal circles or in the wider circles of academic lawyers who were not anxious to share their particular Wilson anecdote, usually involving one of his drier than dry observations. This wealth of friendship is reflected not only in the huge attendance here this evening but also in a flood of contributions to the fund set up in his memory.”