University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh.
Robert Rollock (1555-1699).
First Regent and first Principal of the University.
Rollock was born in 1555 near Stirling. He studied at St Andrews University, graduated in 1577, and remained there to pursue further studies in theology, Hebrew, and Biblical philology. He was appointed Regent in Philosophy there in 1580.
Shortly before the University of Edinburgh was established in 1583, the Town Council of Edinburgh sought a regent. They approached Rollock on the advice of the Rev. James Lawson (1538-1584), First Minister of Edinburgh, and chief promoter of the scheme to establish a university in Edinburgh. R
Under the regenting system then common in Scottish universities, Rollock assumed sole responsibility for the First Year or ‘Bajan’ class. He tutored them throughout the four years of their Master of Arts degree, teaching all subjects himself.
When his class graduated in 1587, he did not resume the regenting cycle with a new Bajan class. He had been appointed the University’s first Principal in 1586, and was now relieved of everyday tutoring duties.
In November 1587, he was appointed Professor of Theology, offering instruction in Divinity to graduates who wished to prepare for the Ministry.
Rollock saw himself not only as an educator but as a spiritual guide to his students, keeping a close eye on their personal religion.
As Principal, he conducted family worship with the students every evening, instructed them in the knowledge of God and their religious duties, every Wednesday, and on Sunday accompanied all the students to St Giles’ Cathedral for the morning and afternoon sermons.
Rollock later served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and as Minister of Greyfriars’ Kirk in Edinburgh.
Rollock died in 1599. His final wishes were that the University should remain first and foremost a place of spiritual advancement, and that his former pupil Henry Charteris be appointed his successor.
www.ed.ac.uk/about/people/plaques/rollock
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Panmure Close, Canongate, Edinburgh.
In Panmure House, on the east side of this close, Adam Smith lived from 1778 to 1790.
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Panmure Close, Canongate, Edinburgh.
The poppies above mark that this close gave access to the Lady Haig's Poppy Factory from 1931 to 1965. The factory continues with its work today from Warriston Road, Edinburgh.
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George Street, Edinburgh.
First New Town.
Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society was founded at this site 1809.
The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society (The Caley) has a long and impressive history. Established in 1809 by a group of seventeen Edinburgh worthies for ‘the encouragement and improvement of the best fruit, the most choice flowers and the most useful culinary vegetables‘, the Society has continued to promote all aspects of Scottish horticulture.
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Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.
Balfour Building, 20A Inverleith Row.
Women of Achievement - Lilian Alcock.
Nora Lilian Alcock (1874-1972), Plant pathologist, Pioneer of seed pathology.
Daughter of Edgeworth Leonora Hill, and Sir John Scott, barrister and judicial adviser to the Khedive of Egypt. Lilian Scott married Nathaniel Alcock in 1905. In 1912, he was appointed professor of physiology at McGill University, Montreal, where he worked on radiation. He died of leukaemia in 1913, leaving her with four children.
Returning to London, she joined the Plant Pathology Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture at Kew, where she acquired expertise in mycology, studying with the Director, (later Sir) John Fryer, John Ramsbottom and Professor Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan. The latter two became her lifelong friends.
Among British pioneers in plant pathology, Lilian Alcock was an early worker on seed pathology. A Fellow of the Linnaean Society (1922), in 1924 she moved to Edinburgh, taking up the new post of plant pathologist with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in Scotland, based at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. She was the first woman appointed to such a high-level job, one of the aims of which was to increase the level of food production through healthy seeds.
Lilian Alcock built up a reputation for providing a quick and practical advisory service in plant pathology. She herself researched fungal diseases, and was awarded the MBE in 1935. She retired in 1937.
During the Second World War, she taught botany to prisoners of war. She was a member of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs and the Edinburgh Soroptimists.
Source - The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
Based on an entry by Agnes Walker.
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