Mungo McCallum Fairgrieve

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". ...

(1872-1937) was a Scottish educator, academic author and amateur meteorologist.

Life

He was born on 30 October 1872 in

Saltcoats Saltcoats (; Scots: ''Saulcuts'') is a town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland. The name is derived from the town's earliest industry when salt was harvested from the sea water of the Firth of Clyde, carried out in small cottages ...

on the

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

coast. He attended both

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

(entering in 1890 and studying under Lord Kelvin) and then

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

, graduating with an M.A. in 1899. In 1900 he began teaching Science at

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

New College, then in 1903 returned to Scotland to

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Stockbridge, is now part of the Senior Scho ...

rising to Senior Master in 1913, retiring in 1935. In 1910 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

George Alexander Gibson George Alexander Gibson (27 January 1854 – 18 January 1913) was a Scottish physician, medical author, and amateur geologist. As an author, he wrote on the diverse fields of both geology and heart disease. The Gibson Memorial Lecture is named ...

, John Sturgeon Mackay, Peter Pinkerton and Andrew Watt. At this time he is listed as living at 67 Great King Street, a prestigious address in Edinburgh's Second New Town. He was Vice President of the Scottish Meteorological Society and Scottish Secretary of the

British Meteorological Society The Royal Meteorological Society is an organization that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Members can be lay enthusiasts. It publishes vario ...

. A keen mountaineer, he was crippled by a serious fall in 1935, his second serious accident in ten years. He died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 4 August 1937.The Meteorological Magazine vol.72 p169

Publications

*''Elementary Physic''s (1924) co-written with fellow teacher James Tudor Cundall

Family

He was married to Helen Gifford.

References

1872 births 1937 deaths Amateur meteorologists Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish mountain climbers {{Scotland-academic-bio-stub People from Saltcoats