Sir Ernest MacLagan Wedderburn OBE DL FRSE WS (3 February 1884 – 3 June 1958) was a Scottish lawyer, and a significant figure both in the civic life of Edinburgh and in the legal establishment.
He held the posts of Professor of Conveyancing in the University of Edinburgh (1922–35), Deputy Keeper of the Signet (1935–54), and Chairman of the General Council of Solicitors (1936–49), the forerunner to the Law Society of Scotland, and chaired the latter 1949/50.
[8] He qualified as a Writer to the Signet in 1907 and then joined his uncle's firm of Carment, Wedderburn & Watson WS based at 2 Glenfinlas Street off Charlotte Square.
While employed with the Ordnance Committee, his aptitude for mathematics enabled him to establish a new system for calculating the allowance to be made for ballistic winds in long-range artillery shooting, which had been widely adopted by the end of the war.
He was appointed Assistant Director of Experiments at the Ministry of Defence's site at Shoeburyness, Essex, was mentioned twice in despatches and awarded a military OBE.
[13] Accounts of the General Council's efficacy are unfavourable, mostly citing lack of funds,[14] and it was replaced in 1949 by a new body, the Law Society of Scotland.
While a student he worked, in the University's vacations, with Sir John Murray on the bathymetrical study of fresh water lochs.
[6] He was closely involved with the Scottish Meteorological Society, and published an article on its history in the November 1955 edition of the journal Weather.
[17] Their son, Ernest Alexander Maclagan Wedderburn, a Major in the Royal Scots, was killed on 24 December 1944, and is buried in the Ancona War Cemetery, Italy.