Web Page 3087 14 th July 2023 First Picture: As Sir Lancelot Spratt

Second Picture: Poster

Third Picture: With Diana Dors

Forth Picture: With Margaret Rutherford

James Robertson Justice was born on 15th June 1907 and died 2nd July 1975. He is best remembered for portraying pompous authority figures in comedies including the films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure movies, notably The Guns of Navarone. Born in south-east London to a Scottish father, he became prominent in Scottish public life, helping to launch Scottish Television (STV) and serving as Rector of the University of Edinburgh (1957-60 and 1963-66). His father Aberdeen-born mining engineer James Norval Justice and Edith (née Burgess), James Robertson Justice was born James Norval Harald Justice in Lee, Lewisham . Educated at St Hugh's School, Bickley, Kent and Marlborough College in Wiltshire, he studied science at University College London, but left after a year and became a geology student at the University of Bonn, where he again left after a year. He spoke many languages including Spanish, French, Greek, Danish, Russian, German, Italian, Dutch and Gaelic. He returned to the UK in 1927, and became a journalist with Reuters alongside Ian Fleming. After a year, he emigrated to Canada, where he worked as an insurance salesman, taught English at a boys' school, became a lumberjack and mined for gold. He came back to Britain penniless, working his passage on a Dutch freighter washing dishes in the ship's galley to pay his fare. On his return to Britain, he served as secretary of the British Ice Hockey Association in the early 1930s and managed the national team at the 1932 European Championships in Berlin to a seventh-place finish. He combined his administrative duties in 1931–32 with a season as goalie with the London Lions. He entered driving a Wolseley Hornet Special in the JCC Thousand Mile Race at Brooklands on 3 and 4 May 1932. The car was unplaced. The following year a "J. Justice (J.A.P. Special)" competed in the Brighton Speed Trials: "Justice's machine 'Tallulah' noisily expired before the end of the course, and was pushed back to the start by way of the arcade under the terrace." He left Britain again to become a policeman for the League of Nations in the Territory of the Saar Basin (a region of Germany occupied and governed by France and Germany under a League of Nations Treaty of Versailles). After the Nazis came to power, he fought in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. It was here that he first grew his signature bushy beard, which he retained throughout his career. On returning to Britain, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, but after sustaining a wound in 1943 he was honourably discharged from the service with a pension. He married nurse Dillys Hayden in Chelsea in 1941, and they had a son, named James. On his return from the war, he reinvented himself with stronger Scottish roots, dispensing with his two middle names and acquiring the new middle name Robertson out of his habit of wearing Robertson tartan. Feeling strongly about his Scottish ancestry. He unsuccessfully contested the North Angus and Mearns constituency for the Labour Party in the 1950 general election. With his earnings from the film Doctor in the House (1954), he purchased a cottage in the Scottish Highlands village of Spinningdale. In 1966 he appeared as a narrator in five episodes of the BBC children's television series Jackanory, telling stories and legends from Scotland. He pursued acting after joining the Players' Theatre in London. Under the chairmanship of Leonard Sachs, who latterly was the chairman of The Good Old Days, the club would stage Victorian music hall nights. With his domineering personality, bulky physique (he played rugby for Beckenham RFC First XV alongside Johnnie Cradock who would become the partner of 1950s TV chef Fanny. With his rich, booming voice, he soon established as a major supporting actor in British comedy films Best remembered as the demanding surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt in the "Doctor" series of film. On 31st August 1957, he helped launch the TV station Scottish Television (STV). From 1957 to 1960, and again from 1963 to 1966, he was Rector of the University of Edinburgh. After a series of affairs and the accidental drowning of his four-year-old son in 1949 near his watermill home in Whitchurch, he separated from his wife; she eventually divorced him in 1968. He met actress Irene von Meyendorff in 1960 and they remained together, eventually marrying in 1975 three days before he died. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com Mary writes I really enjoyed reading today`s blog as it brought back so many happy memories. I remember visiting Dennis the chemists with my mother, who always said what a wonderful couple Mr& Mrs Dennis were. Many yrs later I worked in the pharmacy of Boots the Chemists in Cosham high St & met their daughter in law. I was taken to that shoe shop from an early age for my Startrite shoes. I often bless my parents as I still have nice straight toes! Another favourite place was the ice cream parlour. My mother would buy fresh fish from Slapes. I still enjoy fish today, although it`s quite expensive these days. Fish was considered a cheap meal in those days. There was the woolshop run by Miss Moffat. Apparently aged 3 I told my father we`d been in Miss Mocktit`s shop! He managed to suppress a giggle my mother told me. The fried fish & chip was a favourite special treat & my father had worked for them. Nappers also springs to mind,