Science & Innovation

William Ian Mackay McIntyre was born on the 7th July, 1919, in Altnaharra, Sutherland, the son of a gamekeeper. It was the time spent walking his dogs with his father on moors of the Kimball estate in Sutherland that led to Ian’s early interest in animals and wildlife.

On January 1st 1855 James Ballantyne Hannay was born in Glasgow, his father was Alexander Hannay who owned the Grand Theatre in the Cowcaddens, Glasgow.

James was apparently a brilliant chemist and scientist and from 1879 onwards produced papers, which were read to the Royal Society on many scientific matters, and he also patented many inventions connected with industry. He had a dye works in Hamburg, which specialised in aniline dyes and a private laboratory in Sword Street, Glasgow.

George was born in Glasgow on the 29th May 1925. On graduating from the Glasgow Veterinary College as the gold medallist in 1947, George Urquhart was awarded a scholarship to work with Dr E L Taylor, in the parasitology department at Weybridge. He returned to Glasgow in 1949 as one of the group of men who were given the task of taking the old Glasgow college into a university system. George played a leading role in the development and recognition of the Glasgow school as aveterinary research institution of international standing.

In 1820 regius professorship of botany in the University of Glasgow. 1821 he brought out the Flora Scotica, in which the natural method of arrangement of British plants was given with the artificial. He worked with the Glasgow botanist and lithographer Thomas Hopkirk to establish the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow and to lay out and develop the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

In 1855 he was appointed assistant-director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and in 1865 he succeeded his father as full director, holding the post for twenty years. Under the directorship of father and son Hooker, the Royal Botanical gardens of Kew rose to world renown.

Smith was born in Helensburgh on 13th November 1892. He was educated at Dulwich College and the Royal College of Science (Imperial College), London where he took his first degree and did graduate research. He was a naturalist as a boy and he was able to continue this approach as a scientist.

William Herbert Guthrie-Smith was born William Herbert Smith in Helensburgh, on 13 March 1862. He was the eldest child of John Guthrie Smith, a wealthy insurance broker, and Anne Penelope Campbell Dennistoun. After private tutoring and an English preparatory school, he attended Rugby School. He showed early interest in the natural world.

James George Frazer was, born in Blythswood Square, Glasgow on the 1st January 1854. He was the eldest of four children born by his father Daniel F. Frazer (1821-1900) and his mother Katherine Frazer, nee Bogle (d. 1899). Katherine’s grandfather was George Bogle who is reported to have been Warren Hasting’ envoy to Tibet in 1774. His father Daniel was a wealthy partner in the long-established firm of chemists Frazer and Green, he was also a devout follower of the Free Church of Scotland into whose doctrines James was raised.

Carslaw was born 12 Feb 1870 in Helensburgh, son of the Rev. William Henderson Carslaw, Free Church minister, and his wife Elizabeth, née Lockhead , and was educated at Glasgow University and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He also studied in Rome, at Palermo and Gottingen. After taking his M.A in Glasgow in 1891 he became a scholar of Emmanuel College and Fourth Wrangler in 1894. He was appointed Lecturer of Mathematics at Glasgow University in 1896, and was elected a Fellow of Emmanuel College in 1899. In 1903 he became Professor of Mathematics in the University of Sydney and held the chair until 1935. He married in 1907 Ethel Maude, daughter of Sir William J Clarke, Bt, of Rupertswood, Victoria. She died within a year of their marriage.

Hammersley was born at Dee Bank, Helensburgh on 21 March 1920. He was born of an international couple. His father, Guy Hammersley, was employed in the American steel trade mostly in London, and worked his way from office boy to European Manager during the 1920s. His mother, Marguerite Whitehead, was born in Moscow in 1889, and was sent to boarding school in England in 1903.