Council of Justice and Home Affairs

This material is held atUniversity of Dundee Archive Services

  • Reference
    • GB 254 MS 420/34
  • Dates of Creation
    • 2002-2007
  • Name of Creator
  • Physical Description
    • 1 envelope

Scope and Content

Council of Justice and Home Affairs, Documents and Analysis. Includes: Email to Nicoll from Brendan Donnelly with attached Federal Trust report on justice and home affairs, July 2007 Printed online press release for Pan-European police databases, 2007 Briefing paper for the Senior UK Experts Group, 'EU Justice and Home Affairs: Current Topics', April 2007 Article in French from EIPASCOPE, 2007 - The oliitics of dealing with antiterrorism in Europe 2 typed Notes on European Arrest Warrent (EAW) Article from britainineurope.org.uk Notes on justice and home affairs, annotated by Nicoll Article on EAW, 2002 European Policy Brief, 'Civil Liberties and Democracy in EU', January 2006

Administrative / Biographical History

Born in Dundee, Sir William Nicoll was an only child. Growing up in a tenement, his father was a joiner. He attended Morgan Academy, then won a scholarship to University College, Dundee, which was then part of the University of St Andrews.
Nicoll passed the civil service exams and moved to London in 1949 to join the Board of Trade. Married Helen Morison in 1954, at the same time he became Editor of The Reel, a post he held in 1954 and 1955. The next year he was posted to Calcutta as trade commissioner, cutting short his editorship. Within ten years he had risen to become private secretary to Douglas Jay, the Labour heavyweight whom Harold Wilson had appointed president of the Board of Trade.
From there Nicoll was seconded to the Foreign Office and served 20 years as one of the UK's senior men in Brussels. He became familiar with the French language and had a narrow escape from an IRA letter bomb while there.
Nicoll rose to become Director General of the Council of the European Communities, and was knighted in 1992. In retirement, he lectured, edited the European Business Journal, wrote books on the European Union and advised candidate countries hoping to join it.
Sir William was a lifelong teetotaller, and keen Scottish country dancer.

Access Information

Open for consultation subject to preservation requirements. Access must also conform to the restrictions of the Data Protection Act (2018), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, 2018) and any other relevant legislation or restrictions. Clinical information is closed for 100 years.

Note

Born in Dundee, Sir William Nicoll was an only child. Growing up in a tenement, his father was a joiner. He attended Morgan Academy, then won a scholarship to University College, Dundee, which was then part of the University of St Andrews.
Nicoll passed the civil service exams and moved to London in 1949 to join the Board of Trade. Married Helen Morison in 1954, at the same time he became Editor of The Reel, a post he held in 1954 and 1955. The next year he was posted to Calcutta as trade commissioner, cutting short his editorship. Within ten years he had risen to become private secretary to Douglas Jay, the Labour heavyweight whom Harold Wilson had appointed president of the Board of Trade.
From there Nicoll was seconded to the Foreign Office and served 20 years as one of the UK's senior men in Brussels. He became familiar with the French language and had a narrow escape from an IRA letter bomb while there.
Nicoll rose to become Director General of the Council of the European Communities, and was knighted in 1992. In retirement, he lectured, edited the European Business Journal, wrote books on the European Union and advised candidate countries hoping to join it.
Sir William was a lifelong teetotaller, and keen Scottish country dancer.

Archivist's Note

Description compiled by Joy Naomi Ramsay, Archives Volunteer, 16/04/2018

Conditions Governing Use

Reproduction is available subject to preservation requirements. Charges may be made for this service, and copyright and other restrictions may apply; please check with the Duty Archivist.

Accruals

Not expected

Additional Information

Published