The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Remote post for lawyer
A DUNDEE LAWYER is leaving behind the Scottish courtrooms and heading for a new life in a South Atlantic “tropical paradise” after being appointed the first ever Chief Magistrate of St Helena.
John Macritchie, who lives with his wife and two children in Broughty Ferry, will take up his new appointment on June 24, while his family will fly in to spend their summer holiday with him on the exotic island — once its airport is built.
His new appointments also include that of Chief Coroner, Registrar of Lands, The Labour Regulating Authority (Employment Tribunal Judge), President of the Land Planning and Development Appeals Tribunal, President of the Media Standards Commission (Press Complaints Commission) and Trustee of the Legal Assistance Fund.
Mr Macritchie has been approved for the posts by His Excellency Her Majesty’s Governor of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
He said: “It is a challenging role and a great honour to the Scottish legal profession for me to be appointed the first ever Chief Magistrate and to hold such other important offices in St Helena.
“An airport is in the process of being built and with the increase in resident workers and then tourists it is likely that St Helena has a great deal to look forward to in the next few years and I am excited to be part of that.”
Mr Macritchie was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and went to school at Alness Academy and then the Anderson High School in Shetland.
After graduating from Aberdeen University he qualified as a solicitor in 1986.
He did his traineeship and eventually became the senior court partner with a Peterhead firm.
He became a solicitor in the Supreme Courts in 1990 before in 1997 forming John Macritchie & Co., SSC after becoming an Advocate in Aberdeen.
For the past 25 years he has acted extensively in the English court martial system for the Scottish forces.
In Scotland he is probably best known for his successful defence in the Worlds End Murders — reputedly the biggest case in Scottish Legal history with 30,000 witness statements.
The case led the Scottish Parliament to change the law on double jeopardy.
Since 1994 Mr Macritchie has been the honorary secretary of the Club of Deir, which was formed in 1792, and since 1995 he has been chairman of Banff and Buchan Citizens Advice Bureau.
Since 2008 he has been a governor of Dundee High School, where his daughters Iona and Kara are pupils, having moved to the city in 1998.
The island of St Helena, an overseas territory of the UK, is of volcanic origin and covers 47 square miles in the South Atlantic Ocean.
St Helena is over 4,000 miles from the UK and 700 miles south-east of Ascension Island and 1,700 miles from South Africa.
The island’s total population is around 4,000 — about 25% of whom live in the capital Jamestown.
The climate is kept mild and equable by the south-east trade winds and temperatures range from 20-32 degrees centigrade in the summer and 14-26 degrees centigrade in winter.
The economy is small and is mainly based on offshore employment, agriculture, fishing and more recently a small but growing volume of tourism.
St Helena is most famous for being the exiled home of Emperor Napoleon after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and until his controversial death in 1821.
The island has no airfield and therefore the only regular mode of access is via the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) St Helena, which calls roughly 25 times a year, shuttling between St Helena, Ascension and Cape Town.
However the UK Government is spending more than £200 million to build an airport.
The Magistrates’ Court in St Helena has criminal jurisdiction in all cases where the maximum sentence does not exceed 14 years.