Joseph Thorarinn Thorson

Thorson, Joseph Thorarinn

Joseph Thorarinn Thorson, lawyer, educator, politician, jurist (b at Winnipeg 15 Mar 1889; d at Ottawa 6 July 1978). At age 24, already a Rhodes scholar, graduate of Manitoba College and Oxford, and barrister of the Middle Temple (London, Eng) and Manitoba, Thorson became a jurist of international repute. After serving in the army throughout WWI, he was appointed dean of the law school, U of Manitoba (1921). A Liberal, he was elected MP for Winnipeg South Centre (1926-30) and Selkirk (1935-42); Canadian delegate to the League of Nations, 1938; minister of national service, 1941. President of the Exchequer Court, 1942-64, he was also made judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada in 1959 and its president in 1964. A delegate to the founding meeting of the International Commission of Jurists, Berlin, 1952, he was elected president and served until 1959.