instructions and became Standing Junior Counsel to the Ministry of Works in 1953, transferring to the War Office in 1955. He gave this work up on being appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1957. Political career Already interested in politics, Anderson had been the Unionist candidate in the safe Labour seat of Coatbridge and Airdrie in the 1955 general election and in the more marginal seat of East Dunbartonshire in 1959. He continued trying to find Unionist nominations in winnable seats. Although not a member of parliament, Anderson was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland on 11 May 1960. This was a junior ministerial post within the government (advising the Scottish Office on legal matters) which was considered acceptable for an appointment from outside Parliament. He was also an ex-officio Commissioner for Northern Lighthouses, becoming vice-chairman in 1963. When Niall Macpherson (Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire) was given a Peerage at the end of 1963, Anderson was put forward to fight the seat in the ensuing by-election. It was speculated that the government's difficulty in guiding the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill through its Standing Committee stage in Parliament led to a decision that the Solicitor-General would be useful to have as a member of parliament. He kept the seat with a much-reduced majority of 971 after a low-key campaign. Anderson was taken ill in March 1964 and was forced to announce his resignation from the government and from the Northern Lighthouse Board on 17 March. Initially intending to carry on as MP, a month later he gave up the candidacy and therefore left Parliament at the dissolution in September. When he recovered from illness, Anderson resumed his legal career and in 1965 was appointed Honorary Sheriff-Substitute for Lothians and Peebles. He was a chairman of Scottish Industrial Tribunals from 1971 to 1972 and was chief reporter for public inquiries and under-secretary for the Scottish Office from 1972. Scandal and trial However, his legal career was ended when he was fined £50 for accosting two 14-year-old girls, and asking them to walk on him and beat him up. Anderson had been in Troon on 18 December 1972, presiding over the first major public inquiry of his new post. The prosecution claimed that Anderson, finding himself out of his home town, had approached the girls and asked them to go to a quiet place with him. The case had been controversial as the girls