Annie Erskine Robinson – Suffragist, Socialist and Pacifist was born 8 June 1874 in Montrose. Her father was a down at heel laird’s son and her mother a schoolteacher. Early life was economically hard for Annie Erskine. However, despite hardship she enrolled as a trainee teacher in Edinburgh and achieved […]
Peter Robert Drummond (1802–1879), bookseller and agriculturist, was born at Madderty, Perthshire, the son of John Drummond, a small farmer, and his wife, Jean Gow. He was educated in Madderty, and in early life worked as a carpenter. He attained skill as a maker of picture frames, which brought him into the society of picture […]
George Ballingall – Military surgeon and Medical pioneer – was born near Banff in 1780. After Edinburgh University where he went on to work with John Barclay the anatomist, Ballingall became a surgeon in the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots – First Royals – (1806). During his army career, Ballingall saw service […]
T. R. Buchanan – politician – born in 1846 and later educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated with a First Class in Classical and Mathematical Moderations, then a First Class in Greats. By 1871 he was a Fellow of All Souls College and Librarian of the Codrington Library. Here he […]
John Lanne Buchanan – writer – born in Menteith (Perthshire). After education at Callander Grammar School and the University of Glasgow, Buchanan became an assistant to the minister of Comrie, Robert Menzies. He worked as a missionary in the Western Isles where his Gaelic and evangelical outlook assisted his work. Buchanan […]
Dugald Buchanan (1716-1768) – Gaelic poet – was born at Ardoch Farm, Strathtyre (near Balquhidder) in Perthshire. After some schooling at Stirling and Edinburgh, Buchanan began work as an apprentice carpenter. An early spirituality was formalised by the attending of a college of divinity in Glasgow (early 1740s). Buchanan atones for […]
Alexander Bryce (c.1713-1786) – Mathematician and Church of Scotland minister – baptised in Boarland, Kincardine-on-Forth, Perthshire. After schooling at Kilmadock School, Doune, Bryce studied astronomy and mathematics at Edinburgh. He graduated MA in May 1735. He spent some time as a tutor whilst producing a detailed study and A map of the […]
Robert Archibald Armstrong (1788-1867) – lexicographer – was born at Kenmore in Perthshire. After going up to Edinburgh University, then St Andrews University where he studied Latin and Greek, Armstrong taught in several London schools, including the South Lambeth Grammar School. During this time, he took a wife who subsequently gave him three daughters. He wrote […]
James Blow (Blaw) – printer and bookseller was born in 1676 of the Blaw family of Culross, Perthshire. He began his career as a printer with Patrick Neill who ran Belfast’s first ever printing press. James Blow married the sister of Patrick Neill and took over the business around 1705. In the next year, he […]