After serving in World War II, (he was a Rat of Tobruk) he completed his legal studies and was appointed a Supreme Court Judge in 1965. He had a distinguished legal career and was known to be conscientious, careful and outstanding in his ability to conduct trials in both criminal and civil jurisdictions. Justice Douglas joined the Mount Olivet Advisory Board in 1966 and was elevated to Chairman in 1967. He applied his prodigious legal skills to this role to nurture and inspire all those at Mount Olivet to grow and create the successful institution known today as St Vincent’s Private Hospital Brisbane. As a true leader, realising that he was dying, he handed over the chairmanship of “his Mount Olivet” to his protégé Justice Bill Carter, to continue to carry forward the work he had begun. All three sons became barristers and took silk. Two, Robert Ramsay (d.2002) and James Sholto, were appointed judges of the Queensland Supreme Court in 1999. He was made a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1975.