Master Mackay (James Peter Hymers Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern KT PC FRSE KC) sadly died on 7 July 2026, aged 99.

Master Mackay studied mathematics at the University of Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge, before lecturing in the subject at the University of St Andrews. He subsequently turned to law, graduating from Edinburgh University, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1955. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel (Scotland) in 1965 and built a practice particularly in tax law. He served as Sheriff Principal of Renfrew and Argyll, Vice-Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, before being appointed Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1979, the same year he was appointed a Life Peer. He went on to serve as a Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland and as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, before serving as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1987 to 1997, becoming one of the longest-serving Lord Chancellors.

His career in public service and academic governance included serving as Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Commissary of the University of Cambridge, Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Lord Clerk Register of Scotland and Keeper of the Signet from 2007 to 2022. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Halsbury’s Laws of England from 1998 to 2015. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle in 1997.

Master Mackay was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inn in 1979. He was a Trustee of the Pegasus Trust when it was first established by Master Goff and was a long-term resident of 5 Paper Buildings.

Perhaps the best-documented Inner Temple occasion involving Master Mackay occurred immediately after he was unexpectedly appointed Lord Chancellor in October 1987. A dinner had already been arranged by the Inn to honour his predecessor, Sir Michael Havers. When Master Havers was forced to resign through ill health and Margaret Thatcher appointed Master Mackay instead, in consultation with Master Havers the Bench decided to proceed with the dinner. Master Mackay later recounted: “...the menu had been printed the week before and it simply said the dinner was given by the Benchers of the Inner Temple in honour of ‘the Lord Chancellor’ without further specification – so it proved to be in honour of us both.” He also recorded that Master Havers made “the most generous speech” welcoming him despite having himself lost the office only days earlier (From the Highlands to High Office, WS The Signet Library, 6 June 2016).

On leaving his flat in the Inn in 2022, Master Mackay donated an Elizabeth II silver dish engraved with the Mackay coat-of-arms and motto ‘Justitia Populi’. The dish had been presented to Master Mackay when Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain to commemorate the official opening of Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 3 May 1996.  

The Inn’s flag was flown at half-mast in his memory on Friday 10 July 2026. Details of any memorial service will be circulated in due course as appropriate.