THE Procurator Fiscal for the Lower Ward of Lanarkshire was born in Glasgow
in the forties, and was educated at the Southern Collegiate and High Schools and
at Glasgow University, attending the arts and Law Classes in the old college in
High Street. He learned the commercial law and court practice part of his
profession in the office of Messrs. Smith & Wright, now Wright, Johnston &
Mackenzie, and the conveyancing part in the office of Messrs. Mitchell,
Allardyce & Mitchell, now Mitchells, Johnston & Co. In 1868 he became a member
of the Faculty of Procurators, and entered the office of his father, Mr. William
Hart, and Mr. John Gemmel, then Procurators Fiscal for the Lower Ward, as an
assistant. Two years later he received from the late Sheriff Glassford Bell a
commission as Assistant Procurator Fiscal, which was renewed by Sheriff Dickson.
In 1877 he was appointed a Depute Procurator Fiscal by Procurator Fiscal Brown,
the appointment being approved by the Lord Advocate, and in 1883, on the
resignation of Mr. Brown, he was appointed Procurator Fiscal by the late Sheriff
Clark, and confirmed in the office by the Home Secretary, Sir W. Vernon
Harcourt.
The duties of the Procurator Fiscal are many and varied. Besides investigating
and prosecuting in all criminal cases in the Sheriff Court, and preparing cases
for the High Court of Justiciary, he is Coroner of his district, and
investigates all sudden and suspicious deaths, serious accidents, and fires
where valuable property is destroyed, and many other matters.
In the first year of his appointment Mr. Hart had to conduct two very important
cases - the enquiry into the circumstances of the Daphne launch disaster on the
Clyde, and the preparation of the evidence for the trial of the Glasgow
dynamitards. In the latter case the ten persons indicted were all convicted, and
received sentence. Some idea of the responsibility of Mr. Hart's position may be
gathered from the fact that the Lower Ward of Lanarkshire contains an estimated
population of 1,027,257, and that its valued rental is £6,841,897. By way of
illustrating the extent of his jurisdiction it may be mentioned that he had to
investigate and prosecute in the case of scuttling of a ship off Land's End, and
on another occasion to enquire into the loss of a ship and crew on the West
Coast of Ireland.
Mr. Hart's recreations, when he can get them, are walking and a little
photography.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)