Oliver McGregor, Baron McGregor of Durris

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Oliver Ross McGregor, Baron McGregor of Durris (born August 25, 1921 in Durris , Kincardineshire , Scotland , † November 10, 1997 in London ) was a British sociologist and university professor who was a member of the House in 1978 as a life peer under the Life Peerages Act 1958 of Lords .

Life

Second World War and the beginning of an academic career

McGregor, son of a Scottish tenant farmer , volunteered at the beginning of the Second World War as a gunner before he was seconded to the War Office and then to the Ministry of Agriculture . After demobilization, he graduated with honors from the London School of Economics (LSE) with a degree in economic history .

McGregor began his professional career in 1945, first as an assistant lecturer and then as a lecturer in economic history at the University of Hull , before he switched to Bedford College at the University of London in 1947 and taught there until 1960.

In his first important book, Divorce in England (1957), he undertook a critical analysis of the results of the Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce, named after Fergus Morton, Baron Morton of Henryton , and included a number of relevant, albeit radical proposals to reform divorce law expressed.

During this time he also worked as a research scientist ( Simon Senior Research Fellow ) at the University of Manchester between 1959 and 1960 and was subsequently a reader at the University of London from 1960 to 1964 .

Professor at the University of London

In 1964 McGregor accepted a professorship at the Chair of Social Institutions at the University of London and taught there until 1985. At the same time he was between 1964 and 1977 head of the Department of Sociology at Bedford College there. In this role he recruited a group of eminent scholars, particularly in the areas of socio-legal studies and medical sociology . At the same time he worked as chairman of the study committee and the examination committee for social policy and administration.

1970 appeared under his co-authorship under the title Separated Spouses, the first nationwide representative study of the jurisdiction of magistrate courts on marriage and illegitimate children . The results and recommendations made an important contribution to the debate on family law and its subsequent reform.

Since the 1970s, McGregor has also written numerous articles on social and legal reform, including his contributions to the outstanding lectures given by James Seth . He combined his academic activities with his services as a member of committees such as the Committee on the Enforcement of Judgment Debts , the Committee on Statutory Maintenance Limits and Land Use and as President of the National Council for One-Parent Families and the National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux . During his long academic activity he tried to expand the boundaries of the teaching of his research and to apply the research results to the central problems of social reforms and the public service.

In addition to teaching at the University of London, he worked from 1972 to 1975 as a Fellow at Wolfson College of the University of Oxford . During this time he was also the director of the Center for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford, where he initiated a number of important cross-university research projects, including the University of London, the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford.

As a member of the Select Committee on One-Parent Families , McGregor played a key role in promoting research and drafting its final report, the 1974 Finer Report, named after committee chairman Morris Finer . The resulting joint book The History of the Obligation to Maintain was a fundamental historical analysis of the changing relationships between the development of poor law and family law in relation to the treatment of illegitimate children in England during the 19th century.

Chairman of the Royal Press Commission

Self-regulation in the fields of advertising and the press was another area of ​​activity in the work of McGregor, who was a staunch advocate of press freedom .

On March 7, 1975, McGregor, who was previously a member of this commission, succeeded the late Morris Finer as chairman of the Royal Commission on the Press . This was used in May 1974 to investigate the “factors for maintaining the independence, diversity and editorial standards of newspapers and magazines and the public freedom of choice of national, regional and local newspapers and magazines” ('To inquire into the factors affecting the maintenance of the independence, diversity and editorial standards of newspapers and periodicals and the public freedom of choice of newspapers and periodicals, nationally, regionally and locally ').

The final report of the Royal Press Commission published in 1977 gave a detailed position on the constitutional requirements for freedom of the press, including on the reform of the then Press Council . The report also highlighted the close institutional and financial ties between newspapers and the advertising industry. This necessarily followed his commitment to the principles of freedom and self-supervision of the press in commercial matters.

In 1977 he also became chairman of Reuter's Founders' Share Company and a Fellow of the London School of Economics.

Member of the House of Lords and Chairman of the Supervisory Authority for Advertising Standards and the Press Complaints Commission

By a letters patent dated February 9, 1978, McGregor was raised to the nobility as a life peer with the title Baron McGregor of Durris , of Hampstead in Greater London, and was a member of the House of Lords until his death. Its official introduction ( Introduction ) to the House of Lords took place on March 1, 1978 with the support of Barbara Wootton and John Hunt, Baron Hunt . In the House of Lords, he joined the group of non-party peers, the so-called Crossbencher .

Baron McGregor later served as chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority , a self- monitoring organization for the advertising industry, between 1980 and 1990 . During that ten year tenure, he played a key role in revising the advertising industry's policy on protecting the public interest and dealing with complaints. In 1986 the University of Bristol awarded him an honorary doctorate .

He then acted from 1991 to 1994 as the first chairman of the PCC ( Press Complaints Commission ), which acted as a voluntary organization for complaints about print media (dissolved in 2014 and replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organization ).

These three years of activity were fraught with controversy, notably a series of high-profile revelations about the personal lives of Charles, Prince of Wales and his then-wife Diana, Princess of Wales , which culminated in the book publications of Andrew Morton .

Publications

  • The Social Position of Women in England, 1850-1914: a Bibliography. 1955.
  • Divorce in England: a centenary study. London 1957.
  • with Colin Gibson and Louis Blom-Cooper : Separated Spouses. A study of the matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates' courts. London 1970.
  • Family breakdown and social policy. Maccabaean lecture in jurisprudence. London 1973.
  • with Morris Finer : The History of the Obligation to Maintain. 1974.
  • Social history and law reform. London 1981.
  • Annual Members' Conference Held in the Lord Chief Justice's Court on Saturday 26th March, 1983: Subject: Family Law. 1984.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pat Thane, Tanya Evans: Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? Unmarried Motherhood in Twentieth-Century England. 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-957850-4 , p. 141.
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46376, HMSO, London, October 17, 1974, p. 9191 ( PDF , accessed November 24, 2013, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46521, HMSO, London, March 17, 1975, p. 3631 ( PDF , accessed November 24, 2013, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 47463, HMSO, London, February 14, 1978, p. 1933 ( PDF , accessed November 24, 2013, English).
  5. ^ Entry in Hansard (March 1, 1978)
personal data
SURNAME McGregor, Oliver, Baron McGregor of Durris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McGregor, Oliver Ross, Baron McGregor of Durris (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British sociologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Durris , Kincardineshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1997
Place of death London