David Neil Stirling Macmillan (9 October 1925 – 4 September 1987) was a British historian. Macmillan was born in Airdrie, Scotlandhttps://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ on 9 October 1925. He earned a master's degree from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in 1949, and a PhD from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, Australia in 1965. Macmillan taught at the University of Sydney, followed by

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Founded in 1964, the university is known for its Oxbridge college system, sma ...

in Ontario, Canada, where he was a professor for 20 years. He served as a professional archivist. Macmillan very likely stole more than 3,000 historical documents over 30 years from the

National Records of Scotland National Records of Scotland () is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government. It is responsible for civil registration, the census in Scotland, demography and statistics, family history, as well as the national archives and hist ...

, and other archives including the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

and those of the University of Glasgow, the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

. He was seemingly driven by "an all-consuming interest in stamps." His thefts were the subject of news publicity in March 2025. He began stealing documents in 1949, and had his rights to the archives revoked after being caught stealing in 1981, though the scale of the thefts was not revealed until decades later. 200 items from the National Records of Scotland were discovered at an auction in London in 1994, at which the historian's estate was to be sold. Some items were still marked with their NRS reference numbers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macmillan, David Stirling 1925 births 1987 deaths British historians Alumni of the University of Glasgow University of Sydney alumni University of Sydney people Trent University people British philatelists