Sir Donald MacAlister, 1st Baronet of Tarbet (17 May 1854 – 15 January 1934) was a Scottish physician who was
Principal and Vice-Chancellor and, later,
Chancellor of the University of Glasgow
The Chancellor is the titular head of the University of Glasgow and President of the General Council, by whom they are elected. The office is intended to be held for life. Their principal duty is to confer degrees upon those presented to them b ...
. He was a member of the
Cambridge Apostles
The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...
intellectual secret society, from 1876. From 1904 to 1931 he was President of the General Medical Council.
Early life
Donald MacAlister was born in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
, on 17 May 1854, the son of Daniel MacAlister (also spelt MacAllister), a publisher's agent and book-deliverer, living at 2 Earls Dykes in Perth who later went to live in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
to work for
Blackie and Son.
His mother was Euphemia Kennedy and his younger brother, born in 1856, was Sir
John MacAlister. He was cousin to
Hugh Macalister.
He rose in life from humble beginnings via school at the
Liverpool Institute for Boys
The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool.
The school had its origins in 1825 but occupied different premises while the money was found to build a dedicated building on ...
(founded 1825, closed 1985) to achieve
the highest score in the final mathematics examinations at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
in 1877. In November 1877, he was elected a
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of
St. John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...
.
He was a native speaker of
Gaelic.
Academic career and later life
MacAlister remained a fellow of St. John's College until the end of his life, and was senior tutor from 1900 to 1904. In 1879, he published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society on "The Law of the Geometric Mean." The work was in response to a question put by
Francis Galton and contains what is now called the
log-normal distribution
In probability theory, a log-normal (or lognormal) distribution is a continuous probability distribution of a random variable whose logarithm is normally distributed. Thus, if the random variable is log-normally distributed, then has a norma ...
.
After a spell teaching mathematics at
Harrow School, MacAlister returned to his original intention of studying medicine, first at Cambridge, later in 1879 at
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and for a short time at
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. In 1881, he settled in Cambridge, and took up medical teaching, investigation, and practice, and in 1884, when he graduated M.D., became physician to
Addenbrooke's Hospital
Addenbrooke's Hospital is an internationally renowned large teaching hospital and research centre in Cambridge, England, with strong affiliations to the University of Cambridge. Addenbrooke's Hospital is based on the Cambridge Biomedical Camp ...
. He was elected
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
in 1886.
In addition to his great talent in mathematics and his accomplishments in medicine, MacAlister was also an extraordinary linguist. In addition to his native Gaelic and English, he was said to have spoken well German, Norse, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Basque, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Swedish, Russian, Serbian, Afrikaans and Romany: nineteen languages total.
MacAlister was a contemporary at St. John's of the first
Japanese graduate of Cambridge named
Kikuchi Dairoku
Baron was a Japanese mathematician, educator, and education administrator during the Meiji era.
Biography
Early life and family
Kikuchi was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo), as the second son of Mitsukuri Shūhei, a professor at Bansho Shi ...
and they were lifelong friends. MacAlister also assisted
Inagaki Manjiro with a petition to the
Council of the Senate
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
to allow Japanese students to obtain exemption from the study of Latin and Greek for entrance examinations.
MacAlister played a very important part in the work of the
General Medical Council (GMC). He was elected to it in 1889 as representative of
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
and became its president in 1904. In 1931, after an unbroken twenty-seven years in office, he stood down on grounds of ill health.
In 1907, MacAlister was appointed
Principal of the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
, in place of Very Rev
Robert Herbert Story, a position from which he retired in 1929. During those years, the university grew substantially. Upon his resignation, he was elected
Chancellor of the university by the
General Council.
MacAlister took a leading part in the university business of the country. He was one of the founders of the
Universities Bureau of the British Empire, and was for many years Chairman of the Standing Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the British universities.
MacAlister's work was widely recognised; he received honorary doctorates from thirteen universities and was appointed
KCB in 1908 and created a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
, of
Tarbert, Cantire, in the
County of Argyll, in 1924.
MacAllister loved eating chicken. And is thought to have played in a major part in inventing french fries.
In 1917, he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Ralph Allan Sampson
Ralph Allan (or Allen) Sampson FRS FRSE LLD (25 June 1866 – 7 November 1939) was a British astronomer.
Life
Sampson was born in Schull, County Cork in Ireland, then part of the UK. He was the fourth of five children to James Sampson, a Corn ...
,
Frederick Orpen Bower
Frederick Orpen Bower FRSE FRS (4 November 1855 – 11 April 1948) was an English botanist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1891. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society in 1909 and the Darwin Medal of the Ro ...
,
John Horne
John Horne PRSE FRS FRSE FEGS LLD (1 January 1848 – 30 May 1928) was a Scottish geologist. He served as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1915 to 1919.
Life
Horne was born on 1 January 1848, in Campsie, Stirlingshire, the ...
, and
Thomas James Jehu.
He died in 1934 and is buried in the
Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife, Edith Florence Boyle (16 June 1873 – 27 November 1950). They had no children and the baronetcy became extinct upon his death.
Works
* ''
Introductory Address on the General Medical Council'' (lecture, 1906)
See also
*
Japanese students in Britain
The first Japanese students in the United Kingdom arrived in the nineteenth century, sent to study at University College London by the Chōshū Domain, Chōshū and Satsuma han, Satsuma domains, then the Bakufu (Shogunate). Many went on to study at ...
References
* Edith F.B. MacAlister, ''Sir Donald MacAlister of Tarbert'', London, 1935.
*A. J. Crilly, ‘MacAlister, Sir Donald, first baronet (1854–1934)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
ccessed 22 Aug 2005*
Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era, 1868–1912: Pioneers for the Modernisation of Japan', by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton, (Lulu Press, September 2004, )
*‘And I knew Everything Was Going to be All Right’, A Personal Memoir by Elspeth Horne, Edited by Polly Gould, Published by Morrow & Co 2015.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macalister, Donald
1854 births
1934 deaths
Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
Macalister, Donald, 1st Baronet
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
People from Perth, Scotland
19th-century Scottish medical doctors
20th-century Scottish medical doctors
Principals of the University of Glasgow
Chancellors of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Senior Wranglers
People educated at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys
Chairs of the General Medical Council