Talk:Regius Professor of Natural History (Aberdeen)

Post holders

This list was provided by the current incumbent via the HelpDesk

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF CIVIL AND NATURAL HISTORY

• Francis Skene 1753-1775
• George Skene (academic) 1775-1788
• William Morgan (academic) 1788-1788
• James Beattie (academic) 1788-1810
• Rev Robert Rennie 1810-1811
• James (Jas) Davidson 1811-1841
• William MacGillivray 1841-1852 "MacGillivray, William (1796–1852)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17513. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• James Nicol 1853-1860 "James Nicol". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20164. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY

• James Nicol 1860-1878 (was in post at merger)
• James Cossar Ewart 1879-1882 Who Was Who
• Henry Alleyne Nicholson 1882-1899 (from this point onwards the list already has references)
• John Arthur Thomson 1899-1930
• James Ritchie (academic) 1930-1936
• Lancelot Thomas Hogben 1937-1942
• Alister Clavering Hardy 1942-1945
• Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards 1946-1974
• George Mackenzie Dunnet 1974-1993
• Paul Adrian Racey 1993-2009
• Christopher John Secombes 2014–

- X201 (talk) 11:42, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of putting the list in the usual chronological order, adding wikilinks and a couple of references that I found without too much difficulty, but I suspect that there is more out there. Bencherlite^Talk 17:09, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Updated with these... Question about who was who for some of the earlier.

• Do we have information on James Davidson that identifies him as a historian? I just put (Natural History Professor), which was a guess. I'll change it if we have any info.
• Is the George Skene in the article the same as George Skene, right area and time period, but not sure one way or the other.
• Even more likely to be a match: James Beattie (poet)

Naraht (talk) 17:54, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Updated with Aberdeen University Calendar, 1898 from archive.org. Same information on the 1904 calendar on google books. Assumed that year ending for one is year start for next, but that probably should be checked. Also source has last name of Rainy. Also, the Beattie definitely is the one that is linked.Naraht (talk) 18:22, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Changed dablink here for Davidson to "academic" (my error). According to the Help Desk list, James Beattie held the post until 1810, but James Beattie (poet) died in 1803 and this indicates that they were two different people. George Skene strikes me as a coincidence of names too - this gives dates for the Aberdeen professor of 1742 to 1803 (versus 1749 to 1825 for George Skene). Bencherlite^Talk 18:27, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

There aren't *two* 'James Beattie's floating around there are *Three*. See https://books.google.com/books?id=gigBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA10 . James Beattie, who has a wikipedia page, his son James Hay Beattie and James Beattie's Nephew James Beattie (son of David Beattie) who is in this list. I *fully* agree that they are not the same person. Skene is also odd, but I'm inclined to agree with you there...Naraht (talk) 21:24, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Jackpot!

https://books.google.com/books?id=gigBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46 (through page 50)

• archive.org version Bencherlite^Talk 18:41, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

James Ritchie

Please verify if red links [[James Ritchie (Scientist)]] (in the article) and [[James Ritchie (academic)]] (above) should infact point at James Ritchie (naturalist). My English is not good enough and I seem unable to resolve the Aberdeen/Edinburgh ambiguity.

May be it's just an illusion and there's no time/space conflict here; or may be it's that there were two such men in same time (although that seems unlikely).

Hope this news from 1930 helps: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v126/n3174/abs/126332a0.html

CiaPan (talk) 10:07, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Yes, well spotted - his entry in "Who Was Who" confirms it. Bencherlite^Talk 10:35, 14 January 2015 (UTC)