James Keith, Baron Keith of Avonholm

His grandfather and namesake, James Keith (17 April 1825 – 21 March 1901) and his father, Sir Henry Shanks Keith (26 Dec. 1852 – 9 July 1944) both served as Provosts of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland; his father also being appointed a Deputy Lieutenant and Honorary Sheriff of Lanarkshire. His family owned the large high-end grocery business, Keith's of Hamilton, operating from substantial premises on the town's Cadzow Street (the building remains.) [1]

The young James Keith was brought up at Avonholm, Hamilton and was educated at the Hamilton Academy and the University of Glasgow, where he took a First in History (M.A.) and a LL.B. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1911. During World War I, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders, and was wounded in France. He was later attached to the Egyptian Army and served with the Sudanese government.

After the War, Keith returned to the Scottish bar, and took silk in 1926. In 1936 he was elected as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.

In 1937, Keith was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, taking the judicial title of Lord Keith. In 1953, he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, and was created a life peer, as Baron Keith of Avonholm, of Saint Bernard's in the City of Edinburgh. He was sworn in the Privy Council the same year. As a Law Lord, he dissented in 22% of the cases which he heard – a larger percentage than that of his famously radical contemporary, Lord Denning.[2] He retired in 1961.

On 7 July 1915 James Keith married Jean Maitland Bennett. The couple had three children –

• The Hon. Elizabeth Hamilton Keith
• The Hon. Helena Stewart Keith
• The Rt Hon. The Lord Keith of Kinkel (7 Feb. 1922 – 21 June 2002), who also became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages