This tutor of the great English poet John Milton (until 1622) at St Andrews University (until 1622) was born in Perthshire in 1587. A Puritan divine, Thomas Young studied at St Andrews, taught there and then held religious positions in Hamburg and in Essex. Of note is an anti-episcopal text, […]
James Young is known as an inventor, agricultural engineer and philanthropist. He managed the cotton mills at Deanston in Perthshire from 1807. He is credited with the invention of the ‘thorough drainage’ system that employed subsoil ploughs. James Young was born in 1789 and died in 1850.
Robert Stirling, a Methven man invented two centuries ahead of its time, a simple and elegant engine that gave to the world the most efficient solar energy capture device, created the means to “effectively” sink the pride of the US Navy, the $6.2 billion dollar, nuclear-powered, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the […]
A clergyman born at Gask in Perthshire in 1536 Thomas Semton studied Philosophy at St Andrew’s University. He had attended school with James Lawson and Alexander Arbuthnot. Appointed to the post of Regent at Salvator’s College, Thomas Meton left for Europe during the Reformation. In 1578 after his return to […]
Known for being a palaeontologist, Ramsay Traquair was born at the Manse of Rhynd in Perthshire in 1840. After education at the University of Edinburgh he graduated a MD in 1862. Appointed as a Demonstrator at that university, he undertook that role for 3 years. He then performed similar posts […]
Born in Crieff in 1773, Thomas Thomson is known for his work in the field of chemistry. He studied initially at Edinburgh University and graduated a doctor in 1799. After a period working as a freelance editor, writer, teacher and historian, Thomas Thomson began an appointment as Professor at Glasgow […]
Born on a farm near Aucterarder in 1909, John Monteath Robertson became a crystallographer of note. He studied at Edinburgh University and then joined the research team of W. H. Bragg. Robertson pioneered the investigation of the structures of organic molecules by passing X-rays through them and looking at the […]
A Scottish financier and bridge builder who was born in c1840 in Coupar Angus, Robert Gillespie Reid trained as a bridge builder with his uncle and then set up his own business. After some travel, Australia (1865) he settled in Montreal in 1871. There he built the International Bridge across the Niagara […]
Robert Cunninghame-Graham (1852-1936) – Born in London, Don Roberto, as he was known, was a Liberal MP and prolific writer and a founder with Keir Hardie of the Scottish Labour Party. He is buried at Inchmahome (NN 574005) in Perthshire. Robert Bontine, the son of Major William Bontine of the […]
In 1936 the North Inch was the scene of a confrontation between members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF – Oswald Mosley’s Black-shirts) and thousands of people opposed to them. This event took place against the backdrop of the ascendancy of Nazism in Germany. The rally took place on […]
