James Robertson Justice

This is what I call a varied and interesting life!!


The son of an Aberdeen-born geologist who was named after his father, James Justice was born in Lee, a suburb of Lewisham in South London, in 1907. Educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Justice 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 just a year. He spoke many languages (possibly up to 20) including French, Greek, Danish, Russian, German, Italian, Dutch and Gaelic.[3]
After university
Justice returned to the UK in 1927, and became a journalist with Reuters in London, alongside Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. After a year he emigrated to Canada, serving as an insurance salesman, taught English at a boys' school, became a lumberjack and mined for gold. He came back to England penniless, working his passage on a Dutch freighter.
On 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 goaltender with the London Lions.[4]
After a single trial as a racing driver at Brooklands, 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 mandate originating in the 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 trademark bushy beard, which he retained throughout his career. On return to Britain, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, but after sustaining an injury in 1943 (thought to be shrapnel from a German shell), he was pensioned off.
Love of Scotland
He married nurse Dilys Hayden in Chelsea in 1941, and she gave birth to his son James. On his return from the war he reinvented himself with stronger Scottish roots. Feeling strongly about his Scottish ancestry, he claimed to have been born in 1905 under a distillery on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.[5] He unsuccessfully contested the North Angus and Mearns (UK Parliament constituency) for the Labour Party in the 1950 general election.[3]
Acting career
Justice took up acting after joining the Players' Club in London. The club, under the chairmanship of Leonard Sachs who was latterly chairman of BBC's television's The Good Old Days, would stage Victorian music hall nights. Standing in for Sachs one night, he was recommended for the film For Those In Peril in the summer of 1944.
As an actor, with his domineering personality, bulky physique, and rich, booming voice, he was soon established as a major supporting player in British comedy films. His first leading role was as headmaster in the film Vice Versa, written and directed by Peter Ustinov, who cast him partly because he'd been "a collaborator of my father's at Reuters." Justice was the demanding Sir Lancelot Spratt in the "Doctor" series of the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with Doctor in the House in 1954, playing a role for which he is possibly best remembered. In his films he was sometimes credited as Seamus Mòr na Feusag (Scottish Gaelic, translation: Big James with the Bushy Beard), James R. Justice, James Robertson or James Robertson-Justice.[6]
On 31 August 1957, he helped launch the TV station Scottish Television, hosting the channel's first show, This is Scotland.[7] From 1957 to 1960, and again from 1963 to 1966, he was Rector of the University of Edinburgh.[8] In the 1961 war film The Guns of Navarone, Robertson had a co-starring role as well as narrating the story.
It was rumoured that he was the first choice for the part of the stern headmaster in Bottoms Up, which eventually went to Jimmy Edwards.
Later life
After a series of affairs and the drowning of his son in 1949 at his watermill home in Whitchurch, Hampshire, Justice separated from his wife; she eventually divorced him in 1968. He met actress Irina von Meyendorff in 1960 on the set of The Ambassadress (original German title, Die Botschafterin), and they remained together, eventually marrying in 1975 three days before he died. He suffered a series of strokes in his later life, which left him unable to work, and he died penniless in 1975. His ashes were buried in a North Scotland moor near his former residence.
A biography called James Robertson Justice — What's The Bleeding Time? (named after a joke in the first Doctor film) was published by Tomahawk Press on 3 March 2008.[9]. It was written by James Hogg, Robert Sellers and Howard Watson.

If you want a bizarre life, Tone, Max Woosnam takes a bit of matching...

Sounds like he lived it to the full Tony, unlike this bloke

Stephen David Wyatt Milligan (12 May 1948 - circa 7 February 1994) was a British Conservative politician and journalist. He is perhaps best known for dying by autoerotic asphyxiation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Milligan

bitofatwat wrote:Sounds like he lived it to the full Tony, unlike this bloke

Stephen David Wyatt Milligan (12 May 1948 - circa 7 February 1994) was a British Conservative politician and journalist. He is perhaps best known for dying by autoerotic asphyxiation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Milligan

Milligan's Death:

It was alleged at the time by Scallywag magazine that Stephen Milligan
was originally approached by the British security services in an attempt to
dissuade a well-known footballer coming towards the end of his career
from continuing to hawk his story of gay sex sessions with two then
serving cabinet ministers around Fleet Street.

Milligan was a well respected MP and part time journalist. Milligan
allegedly approached the footballer who was not prepared to drop his
attempts to sell the story. Milligan allegedly reported back to the
security services who informed Milligan that unless the footballer did
keep matters quiet he would be eliminated. Apparently there was more
to the story than simply the gay sex aspect, the introduction of the
footballer to the cabinet ministers was allegedly arranged by a third
party who had very close links with an extremely powerful paedophile
ring. The implication was that the cabinet ministers may also have
been involved with the paedophile ring although this was not confirmed
in the Scallywag report, however it was very clearly hinted at.

It was allegedly decided by the security services that the potential
damage to the British Constitution if the story got out was so great
that it would not only bring down the government but could also
destablise the entire concept of parliamentary democracy. The cabinet
ministers involved were very high profile indeed and the alleged
paedophile link, if revealed, would have had a catastrophic effect on
not only public confidence in domestic government but would have had
repercussions on the image of Britain right around the world.

When Milligan realised that the threat to murder the footballer was in
fact serious, he allegedly panicked. He had not realised that he was
being dragged into something with such serious implications and, being
an extremely moral and decent man, it wasn't something he was prepared
to be involved with or to go along with. He allegedly made one more
unsuccessful attempt to convince the footballer to back down, even
warning the footballer that his life was in danger. The footballer
didn't believe that this sort of thing could go on in modern day
Britain and continued to attempt to sell the story, which no editor to
that date had been brave enough to publish.

Milligan was allegedly informed by the security services that, his
efforts at dissuasion having failed, the footballer would be killed
with his death being made to look like an accident. Milligan then
allegedly threatened the security services that, if anything happened,
he would tell the whole story to The Sunday Times.

Shortly afterwards Stephen Milligan died, having apparently hanged
himself and being found with a satsuma in his mouth. He had no
previous history of kinky or unusual sexual practices whatsoever and,
despite their utmost efforts to do so, the national press were unable
to find any evidence whatsoever that he had anything other than an
extremely conventional sex life. Indeed, it was generally reported
that sex and sexuality appeared not to have played a significant part
in his life at all.

The footballer was allegedly approached directly after Milligan's
death by the security services and, now realising that they had been
prepared to kill a sitting MP to keep the story quiet, realised for
the first time that his life was in danger. He allegedly accepted a
sum of money in return for his silence.

Justin Fashanu was found hanged not long after......supposedly by his own hand but very unlikely.

Nobby Cheese wrote:

bitofatwat wrote:Sounds like he lived it to the full Tony, unlike this bloke

Stephen David Wyatt Milligan (12 May 1948 - circa 7 February 1994) was a British Conservative politician and journalist. He is perhaps best known for dying by autoerotic asphyxiation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Milligan

Milligan's Death:

It was alleged at the time by Scallywag magazine that Stephen Milligan
was originally approached by the British security services in an attempt to
dissuade a well-known footballer coming towards the end of his career
from continuing to hawk his story of gay sex sessions with two then
serving cabinet ministers around Fleet Street.

Milligan was a well respected MP and part time journalist. Milligan
allegedly approached the footballer who was not prepared to drop his
attempts to sell the story. Milligan allegedly reported back to the
security services who informed Milligan that unless the footballer did
keep matters quiet he would be eliminated. Apparently there was more
to the story than simply the gay sex aspect, the introduction of the
footballer to the cabinet ministers was allegedly arranged by a third
party who had very close links with an extremely powerful paedophile
ring. The implication was that the cabinet ministers may also have
been involved with the paedophile ring although this was not confirmed
in the Scallywag report, however it was very clearly hinted at.

It was allegedly decided by the security services that the potential
damage to the British Constitution if the story got out was so great
that it would not only bring down the government but could also
destablise the entire concept of parliamentary democracy. The cabinet
ministers involved were very high profile indeed and the alleged
paedophile link, if revealed, would have had a catastrophic effect on
not only public confidence in domestic government but would have had
repercussions on the image of Britain right around the world.

When Milligan realised that the threat to murder the footballer was in
fact serious, he allegedly panicked. He had not realised that he was
being dragged into something with such serious implications and, being
an extremely moral and decent man, it wasn't something he was prepared
to be involved with or to go along with. He allegedly made one more
unsuccessful attempt to convince the footballer to back down, even
warning the footballer that his life was in danger. The footballer
didn't believe that this sort of thing could go on in modern day
Britain and continued to attempt to sell the story, which no editor to
that date had been brave enough to publish.

Milligan was allegedly informed by the security services that, his
efforts at dissuasion having failed, the footballer would be killed
with his death being made to look like an accident. Milligan then
allegedly threatened the security services that, if anything happened,
he would tell the whole story to The Sunday Times.

Shortly afterwards Stephen Milligan died, having apparently hanged
himself and being found with a satsuma in his mouth. He had no
previous history of kinky or unusual sexual practices whatsoever and,
despite their utmost efforts to do so, the national press were unable
to find any evidence whatsoever that he had anything other than an
extremely conventional sex life. Indeed, it was generally reported
that sex and sexuality appeared not to have played a significant part
in his life at all.

The footballer was allegedly approached directly after Milligan's
death by the security services and, now realising that they had been
prepared to kill a sitting MP to keep the story quiet, realised for
the first time that his life was in danger. He allegedly accepted a
sum of money in return for his silence.

Justin Fashanu was found hanged not long after......supposedly by his own hand but very unlikely.

Ive always liked JRJ he had great comedy timing.the odd thing was I always thought he was gay.
I may look out for his auto biography.Errol Flynns is a good read, so is Shelley Winter's.

bitofatwat wrote:

Nobby Cheese wrote:

bitofatwat wrote:

I was thanking you for the alternative view Tony

Nobby Cheese wrote:

It was allegedly decided by the security services that the potential
damage to the British Constitution if the story got out was so great
that it would not only bring down the government but could also
destablise the entire concept of parliamentary democracy. The cabinet
ministers involved were very high profile indeed and the alleged
paedophile link, if revealed, would have had a catastrophic effect on
not only public confidence in domestic government but would have had
repercussions on the image of Britain right around the world.

Who researched that?

(i) There is no "British Constitution"
(ii) Image of Britain around the world? We could have parliamentary goatfucking sessions, we couldn't stink worse than we do already
(iii) There is no parliamentary democracy and if there were, rubbing out people is more of a threat than a bit of hide the pickle. As for paedo rings, it sinks one party, that's all. There's never a shortage of numbers looking to chow down at the power trough.

Bert wrote: We could have parliamentary goatfucking sessions, we couldn't stink worse than we do already