‘I still feel very blessed to have survived’

The Lord High Commissioner to this year’s General Assembly of the Church of Scotland tells Jackie Macadam how the Polmont rail crash helped shape her life.

AS high achievers go, the Right Honourable Lady Elish Angiolini, LT DBE PC KC FRSE, the Lord High Commissioner to this year’s General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, does not have many rivals.

Lady Elish was appointed Lord Advocate in October 2006, the first woman to hold the post as the most senior law officer in Scotland. While in office she took forward the most wide-ranging programme of modernisation in the department’s history and was the first Lord Advocate to remain in office despite a change in government.

A high-flier without any doubt – but her beginnings gave no clue as to where she would go.

“I was born in St Francis’s Nursing Home in Govan. My parents were both Catholic and my childhood was immersed in Christianity as a faith.”

“As a child I associated my faith with circumstances predominantly of joy, for example, Christmas and Easter. I wasn’t always the most attentive member of the congregation as a child. I still remember sitting on the kneeler using the pew to empty my toy handbag out where I would play for the full service, invisible to everyone around me,” she laughs.

“My parents were exceptionally kind people and long after my parents died, I heard so much about what they did for others in our area who were struggling. My father had a coal business and I have been stopped by many people who have told me that when they didn’t have money to pay for the coal my father would put the coal in anyway. My mother always said he was a dreadful businessman!”

Lady Elish is the first Roman Catholic to hold the post of Lord High Commissioner, a role that required a new Act of Parliament to allow the appointment.

She credits her mother as being the greatest influence on her as she grew up.

“She was very charismatic, loving and funny. I remember she would knit outfits for our dolls for Christmas and summer holidays even though she was working full time in a shop in the city centre. She would sing and recite poetry, and my father would play the piano, the violin and the saxophone, so music is a very happy reminder of so many wonderful evenings in our home with neighbours and friends (this is beginning to sound a bit like The Waltons!) My mother’s optimism and energy has been passed on to all four of her children including me.”

An early brush with poverty awakened an interest in law and in helping those in need in the young Elish.

“My interest in law developed when I was about 16 years old and I was asked by the local priest to visit an elderly lady who lived in a multi-story block of flats in Govan. When I visited her I discovered that she had no carpeting but linoleum which was torn and worn in a number of places. The flat was very cold and she had one storage heater. I found leaflets in the local library which I used to apply for a special payment of supplementary benefits for her to have a carpet. This was refused on the basis that only linoleum could be provided under the regulations. I appealed the decision, and we won. The rules were changed and the lady in question got a fullyfitted carpet throughout her flat. I remember it cost £3.99 per square yard!”

“I was born in St Francis’s Nursing Home in Govan. My parents were both Catholic and my childhood was immersed in Christianity as a faith.

In 1984, Lady Elish was involved in an accident that could have changed the course of her life – or even ended it. She was a passenger on a train that hit a cow on the line at Polmont, near Falkirk. It was one of the worst train crashes ever to have occurred in Scotland. Thirteen people died and 61 were injured, some of them very seriously.

“I was heading home from Edinburgh to Glasgow when the train crashed. I was in the front coach and although I was injured, I survived. Many others in the carriage died. It was a dreadful tragedy,” she said. “I still feel very blessed to have survived when so many of my fellow commuters were killed or very seriously injured.”

Lady Elish has always had a particular interest in social issues and the law, and some of the inquiries that she has chaired have reflected that.

One of the early investigations she chaired was about the disposal of baby ashes in an Edinburgh crematorium.

“I chaired an investigation into the disposal of baby ashes from a crematorium in Edinburgh. Staff at the crematorium had advised many next of kin who had lost new babies that there would be no ashes for them to receive following the cremation.

This was untrue and some members of staff there were simply placing the deceased babies’ bodies in with the body of an unrelated individual. This was an appalling practice and very heartless.

“As a result of what this investigation discovered, a full inquiry for all of Scotland was established. It was a desperately sad investigation and I still feel for those parents who were cheated of the comfort of having their loved ones’ ashes returned to them. As a result of the inquiry, the law was changed to regulate burial and cremation practices and prohibit such surreptitious behaviour. An Inspector of Crematoria for Scotland was also appointed.”

Last year Lady Elish published the report on her investigation into the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by an off-duty police officer and continues to chair the second part of that inquiry.

Prior to the inquiries, she broke new ground in Scotland’s justice system when she continued in office after a switch in government.

“I have served as Solicitor General and Lord Advocate for the Labour-Liberal coalition Government of Scotland and was retained by the opposition following the election. It was a huge privilege and a heavy burden to be the Lord Advocate – I still consider it to have been the most enormous honour of my career to serve in that role. The Lord Advocate’s role is to provide independent legal advice to the Government and to represent the Government in any legal matters in court. The Lord Advocate is also the head of the systems of deaths investigation and prosecution in Scotland, not dissimilar to the Attorney General in England and Wales.”

Lady Elish also currently serves as the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland.

With her career’s successes, Elish was honoured by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth and made a Lady of The Order of The Thistle. She remembers the day well.

“It was a tremendous honour and I had the most wonderful day with my husband and my two sons as well as other members of the family.”

In spite of everything she has achieved, when asked about her proudest achievement, she does not hesitate. “My children,” she said.

Reflecting on her appointment to the role of King’s representative to the General Assembly, she adds: “I feel deeply honoured to be appointed by His Majesty as Lord High Commissioner.” ¤