Former Dean of Faculty, William David Prosser, the Rt Hon Lord Prosser

The Faculty has learned of the death of the former Dean, William David Prosser, who also served as a Senator of the College of Justice with the judicial title Lord Prosser. He was 80.

After attending Edinburgh Academy and graduating at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Edinburgh University, William Prosser was admitted to Faculty in 1962 and took silk in 1974.

He was elected Vice-Dean in 1979, and then Dean in 1983 and held office until he was elevated to the Bench in 1986. He retired in 2001.

Lord Prosser had a great interest in the arts and served in many posts, including Chairman of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company and Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland.

He was also a former Trustee of the Franco-British Council, a past President of the Franco-British Lawyers Society and held the honour, Officier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France).

James Wolffe, QC, Dean of Faculty, said: "Lord Prosser was an advocate and judge of towering intellect, and a man of enormous humanity and wide cultural interests. Among his many contributions to Scotland’s legal and cultural life, he was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates from 1983 to 1986. He will be greatly missed."