About John Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington
John Francis Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington, (6 October 1920 – 31 August 2005) was a British barrister and judge who served as Master of the Rolls for ten years, from 1982 to 1992. He was the first (and only) President of the short-lived National Industrial Relations Court from 1971 to 1974. == Early and private life == John Francis Donaldson was born in Marylebone, London, on 6 October 1920, to Malcolm (1884–1973) and Evelyn (née Gilroy) Donaldson. His father was a Harley Street-based gynaecologist. Donaldson attended first Charterhouse and then Trinity College, Cambridge. He served as chairman of the Federation of University Conservative and Unionist Associations, and harboured ambitions of representing the Conservative Party as a Member of Parliament. He was an Independent Ratepayers Councillor for the County Borough of Croydon from 1949 to 1953. After graduating with a lower second class degree in 1941, he joined the war effort as a commissioned officer in the Royal Signals. He then served with the Guards Armoured Divisional Signals, both domestically and in North-West Europe, until the end of the war in 1945. He served in the military government of Schleswig-Holstein, and was demobbed as a lieutenant-colonel aged 25.
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