George Adam Smith

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific_prefix = Sir

|name = George Adam Smith

|image = File:Rev George Adam Smith in 1895.png

|caption = George Adam Smith in 1895

|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRSE|FBA}}

|order =

|title = Principal of the University of Aberdeen

|term_start = 1909

|term_end = 1935

|predecessor = Reverend John Marshall Lang

|successor = Sir William Hamilton Fyfe

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1856|10|19||df=y}}

|birth_place = Calcutta, India

|death_date = {{death date and age|1942|3|2|1856|10|19|df=y}}

|death_place = Balerno, Edinburgh, Scotland

|education = Royal High School, Edinburgh

|alma_mater = University of Edinburgh

|profession = Theologian

|spouse = {{marriage|Alice Lillian Buchanan|1889}}

|children = 7, including Alick, Baron Balerno and Janet

}}

:Note in particular that this George Smith is to be distinguished from George Smith (Assyriologist) (1840–1876) who researched in some overlapping areas.

File:Queen's Cross Church - geograph.org.uk - 450233.jpg

File:The grave of George Adam Smith, Currie Churchyard.jpg Churchyard]]

Sir George Adam Smith {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|FRSE|FBA}} (19 October 1856 – 3 March 1942) was a Scottish theologian. He was the Principal of the University of Aberdeen between 1909 and 1935 and an important figure in the United Free Church of Scotland.

Life

He was born in Calcutta, where his father, George Smith, C.I.E., was then Principal of the Doveton College, a boys' school in Madras.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} His mother was Janet Colquhoun Smith (née Adam).{{Cite web|url=http://genealogy.links.org/links-cgi/readged?/home/ben/camilla-genealogy/current+!0:156598+2-2-0-1-0|title = George SMITH}} By 1870 the family had returned to Scotland and were living at Scagore House in Seafield, Edinburgh.

He was educated at Edinburgh in the Royal High School.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He then studied Divinity at the University of Edinburgh and the New College, graduating MA in 1875.{{cn|date=September 2021}}

After studying for summer semesters as a postgraduate at the University of Tübingen (1876) and the University of Leipzig (1878) and travelling in Egypt and Syria, he was ordained into the Free Church of Scotland in 1882 and served at the Queen's Cross Free Church in Aberdeen.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=18 July 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

In 1892 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew{{Cite journal|jstor = 3140304|title = The Rev. George Adam Smith, D.D., Professor of Hebrew in the Free Church College, Glasgow, Scotland|journal = The Biblical World|volume = 8|issue = 1|pages = 1–7|last1 = Bruce|first1 = Alexander Balmain|year = 1896|doi = 10.1086/471902|s2cid = 144129947|doi-access = free}} and Old Testament subjects in the Free Church College at Glasgow. In 1900 (at its creation) he moved from the Free Church of Scotland to the United Free Church of Scotland.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=18 July 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

In 1909, he was appointed Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, a post he held until his retirement in 1935. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916, and was knighted in the same year.{{London Gazette |issue=29483 |date=22 February 1916 |pages=1946–1947}}

He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1916-17.These facts of his life are largely drawn from S.A. Cook,'George Adam Smith 1856-1942', Proceedings of the British Academy, vol.xxviii (London: Oxford University Press).

In 1917, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Horne, Cargill Gilston Knott, Ben Peach and John Sutherland Black.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=18 July 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

He was appointed a Chaplain-in-Ordinary to King George V in 1933,{{London Gazette |issue=33983 |date=3 October 1933|page=6351}} and reappointed by King Edward VIII{{London Gazette |issue=34306 |date=20 July 1936 |page=4665}} and King George VI.{{London Gazette |issue=34376 |date=2 March 1937 |page=1407}}

From 1924 to 1938 he was Patron of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.{{Cite web|url=http://www.seventradesofaberdeen.co.uk/patrons-over-the-years/#|website=Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen|title=Patrons}}

He died at home, "Sweethillocks" in Balerno south-west of Edinburgh on 3 March 1942. He is buried with his wife and children in the north-east corner of Currie Cemetery in south-west Edinburgh.{{cn|date=September 2021}}

Family

In 1889 he married Alice Lillian Buchanan (1866-1949), daughter of Sir George Buchanan MD FRS.{{Cite web|url=http://www.glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/1909_Glasgow_Men/Smith_Rev_George_Adam.htm|title=Rev. George Adam Smith}} They had seven children:

George Buchanan Smith (1890-1915);
Robert Dunlop Smith (1892-1917);
Lilian May Buchanan Drew (1894-1980);
Alick Buchanan-Smith, Baron Balerno (1898-1984);
Kathleen Paget Thomson (1900-1941), married George Paget Thomson;
Janet Adam Smith (1905-1999);
Margaret Buchanan Smith Clarke (1910-2000).

Works

[https://archive.org/details/bookofisaia01smitb The Book of Isaiah (The Expositor’s Bible)] (Vol.1., 1888)
[https://archive.org/details/bookofisaia02smit The Book of Isaiah (The Expositor’s Bible)] (Vol.2., 1890)
The Preaching of the Old Testament to the Age (1893)
[https://archive.org/details/historicalgeogra00smit_0 The Historical Geography of the Holy Land] (1894)
Four Psalms: XXIII, XXXVI, LII, CXXI, Interpreted for Practical Use (1896)
The Book of the Twelve Prophets (The Expositor’s Bible) (2 vols., 1896, 1898)
The Life of Henry Drummond (1899).
Modern Criticism and Preaching of the Old Testament (1901)
Encyclopaedia Biblica (contributor) (1903)
The Forgiveness of Sins, and other Sermons (1905)
[https://archive.org/details/cu31924083674295 Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70] (Vol 1., 1907)
[https://archive.org/details/cu31924083674154 Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70] (Vol 2., 1907)
The Early Poetry of Israel in its Physical and Social Origins (the Schweich Lectures for 1910)
War and peace: Two Sermons in King’s College Chapel, University of Aberdeen (1915)
Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (HGHL; 1915)[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_7032971_000/ldpd_7032971_000.pdf]
Syria and the Holy Land (1918)
[https://books.google.com/books?id=42BbAAAAMAAJ The Book of Deuteronomy, in the Revised Version, with Introduction and Notes] (1918)
Our Common Conscience: Addresses delivered in America during the Great War (1919)
Jeremiah (the Baird Lecture for 1922)
The Kirk in Scotland 1560 – 1929 (with John Buchan) (1930)
The Legacy of Israel (with others) (1944)
The Book of the Twelve Prophets (1906)

Bibliography

Iain D. Campbell, Fixing the Indemnity: The Life and Work of Sir George Adam Smith (1856-1942) (Carlyle, Paternoster Press, 2004) (Paternoster Theological Monographs - PTM).