Dr James Cameron Smail

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FRSGS PRSSA CBE LLD (1880-1970) was a Scottish university Principal. Heriot Watt University library is named the Cameron Smail Library in his honour. He wrote extensively on printing and the history of printing.

Life

He was born in 1886 the son of Adam Smail, a bookseller and stationer in Bruntsfield, living at 18 Spittal Street in Tollcross, Edinburgh. He was privately educated at Daniel Stewart's College in Edinburgh. From 1902 until 1911 he was a school inspector in Ireland. In 1911 he appears to live at 31 Brighton Road in Rathmines on the outskirts of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. From 1911 to 1928 he worked for

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

. In 1928 he became Principal of Heriot-Watt College and started a major expansion programme. In 1929 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were Sir James Alfred Ewing, Richard Stanfield, Francis Gibson Baily and Alfred Archibald Boon. He was a regular attender of meetings. He retired in 1950. In 1951 he was made a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland. He died on 26 April 1970.

Family

In 1908 he married Louisa Florence Davidson. His daughter was Elizabeth Margaret Cameron Smail.

Artistic recognition

His portrait by Mary Remington is held at Heriot-Watt University.

Publications

See *''Some Aspects of Education for the Printing Trade'' (1937) *''Technical Education'' (1946) *''Scottish Enterprise Printing'' (1947) *''

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

and the Heriot Watt College'' (1949) *''Education and Training of Printers'' (1951) *''Printing in Scotland 1507-1947'' (1963) *''The Phrenological Museum, Edinburgh'' (1963)

References

1880 births 1970 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Academics of Heriot-Watt University Scottish non-fiction writers Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{UK-bio-stub