Sir John Skelton

Sir John Skelton KCB (1831–1897) was a Scottish lawyer, author and administrator. He is best known for his contributions to The Guardian and Blackwood's Magazine.

Born in Edinburgh, he was the son of James Skelton of Sandford Newton, writer to the signet, sheriff-substitute at Peterhead, where he was brought up. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. In 1854 he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates; but concentrated on writing.

When the Scottish Board of Supervision, which administered the laws on the poor and public health, was reconstituted in 1868, Skelton was appointed secretary by Benjamin Disraeli. He retained the post of secretary to the board of supervision till 1892, when he was elected chairman. In 1894, when the board was replaced by the Local Government Board for Scotland, Skelton became vice-president of the new body. He finally retired on 31 March 1897.

In 1878 Skelton received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh University; he was created C.B. in 1887, and K.C.B. in 1897.

He died on 19 July 1897 at Hermitage of Braid, in south Edinburgh. He is buried on the obscured lower southern terrace of Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh with his wife, Dame Anne Adair Lawrie (1847-1925), and son Archibald Noel Skelton (1880-1935) and daughter Evelyn Margaret Skelton (1876-1952).

Joseph Noel Paton was one of his friends, as was Thomas Spencer Baynes from student days. Paton is buried very close to Skelton's grave.

In 1857 Skelton contributed to a volume of Edinburgh Essays an essay on "Early English Life in the Drama". He used the pseudonym of "Shirley" from the novel by Charlotte Brontë, and became a regular contributor of essays and reviews to the Guardian, a short-lived Edinburgh periodical, and to Fraser's Magazine; he was on good terms with James Anthony Froude, its editor. In 1862 appeared Nugæ Criticæ, a collection of his published essays, and Thalatta, or the Great Commoner, a political novel based on a character with characteristics of George Canning and Disraeli. Benjamin Disraeli: the Past and the Future (London, 1868) was a sympathetic sketch.

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