John Douglas Craig (31 May 1887 – 13 May 1968) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

classicist, who was Firth Professor of Latin at the University of Sheffield from 1930 to 1952.

Life

Craig was the son of Rev Robert Craig, minister in Ardentinny in Argyll, Scotland. He was the younger brother of

Robert Meldrum Craig Dr Robert Meldrum Craig FRSE FGS (13 July 1882 – 28 March 1956) was a prominent Scottish geologist and academic author. He left a large collection of fossils now housed in the collection of the University of St Andrews. Life He was born on 1 ...

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 letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

, the geologist, and Prof James Manson Craig of St Andrews University.Bones of Empire, by Brian J Orr He was educated at Madras College,

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, and then studied classics at the University of St Andrews under

Wallace Lindsay Wallace Martin Lindsay (12 February 1858 – 21 February 1937) was a classical scholar of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a palaeographer. He was Professor of Humanity at University of St Andrews. Biography Lindsay was born in Pi ...

and John Burnet, before moving to Jesus College, Oxford for further studies. He obtained a first-class degree in classics at St Andrews, and a second-class degree in Literae Humaniores at Oxford. He then assisted Lindsay in St Andrews from 1912 to 1913 before becoming Assistant Professor of Classics at

Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to: *Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada *Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK **Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950) **Queen's University of Belfast ...

, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1913. In 1915, he left Canada to be commissioned in the Royal Artillery and was severely wounded in action at the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. He returned to Ontario in 1919 as Acting Professor of Latin, moving to the University of Sheffield as Lecturer in Classics in 1920, and back to St Andrews in 1924 as Lecturer in Humanity. During this time, he undertook a lot of the teaching and administrative work that Lindsay was unable to due because of increasing deafness. Craig returned to Sheffield as Firth Professor of Latin in 1930, building up good relations with the classics department at the nearby University of Leeds, before retiring to live in St Andrews in 1952. He became a town councillor in his efforts to preserve St Andrews from change, a task in which he was not always successful and sometimes aroused opposition. His main scholarship was on the Roman author Terence, but his teaching work was also highly regarded.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, John Douglas 1887 births 1968 deaths Scottish classical scholars Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Queen's University at Kingston faculty Academics of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of St Andrews Royal Artillery officers British Army personnel of World War I People educated at Madras College