Background
Hetherington was born in Cowdenbeath, Fife, and educated at Dollar Academy.
chairman lecturer lieutenant philosopher
Hetherington was born in Cowdenbeath, Fife, and educated at Dollar Academy.
He studied at the University of Glasgow and at Merton College, Oxford.
He was appointed Lecturer in Moral Philosophy at Glasgow in 1910, and Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield in 1914, before becoming Professor of Logic and Philosophy at University College Cardiff (now Cardiff University) in 1915. He worked in the Secretariat of the 1919 International Labour Conference of the League of Nations in Washington, District of Columbia In 1920, he moved to University College Exeter as Professor of Philosophy and Principal of the College, and returned to Glasgow in 1924 as Professor of Moral Philosophy.
In 1927, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, but returned to Glasgow again in 1936, as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University. He served in this position for twenty-five years, retiring in 1961.
He served as a Trustee of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and, ex officio, of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland from 1936 until 1961.
He was a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation from 1943 until his death, serving as Vice-Chairman from 1961. In 1942 he visited the United States of America as a British visiting adviser to American universities on wartime academic policy. In 1943 he became Chairman of the Committee of British Vice-Chancellors and remained as Chairman or Deputy Chairman until 1952.
He received honorary degrees from 13 universities in the United Kingdom and North America.
From 1930 to 1932 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance and in 1938 was appointed as Chairman of the Royal Commission on Workmen"s Compensation. From 1940 to 1948 he was a member of the National Arbitration Tribunal and from 1951 to 1959 he was a member of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal.