George Stronach

“ In 1873 he began to lecture on the practice of physic in the extramural school, and at once became the most popular teacher on medicine outside the university walls, introducing many practical improvements in the methods of instruction. ”

“ In 1862 he was appointed pathologist to the infirmary, and lecturer on pathology at Surgeons' Hall, as well as a physician to the sick children's hospital. In 1866 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. During these early years Stewart worked incessantly, made observations of real and permanent value on the symptoms and pathology of waxy kidney, and wrote papers on various kidney conditions, on dilatation of the bronchi, on acute atrophy of the liver, and on other subjects. ”

“ In 1885 he was defeated for North Ayrshire by the Hon. H. F. Elliot. In 1886 he became assessor to St. Andrews University, and in 1887 a commissioner to inquire into the working of the Scotch Education Act. Shortly afterwards he joined the fishery board of Scotland, and was granted the degree of LL.D. from Glasgow University in consideration of his scholarly attainments. In December 1887 he was appointed permanent under-secretary for Scotland, an office in which he rendered most valuable assistance in the promotion of Scottish business, notably the Local Government (Scotl.) ”

“ Glass, Elliot, & Co. and the Gutta Percha Company for the manufacture of a new cable of greater strength and value than any previous one; but the latter company refused to proceed without a guarantee. It was at this crisis that Fender offered his personal security for a quarter of a million sterling, when the two companies were amalgamated under the name of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, with Fender as chairman. Not only was the new cable successfully laid in 1866, but the broken one was recovered. ”

“ Lord Moncreiff married, on 12 Sept. 1834, Isabella, only daughter of Robert Bell, procurator of the church of Scotland, and sheriff of Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire, and by her (who died on 19 Dec. 1881) he had five sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Henry James, now Baron Moncreiff, sat since 1888, under the title of Lord Well wood, as a lord of session, an office which, as Lord Moncreiff, he still retains.
[Scotsman, 29 April 1890; Addison's Glasgow Graduates; Scottish Law Review, June 1895 (with portrait) ; Burke's Peerage; Men of the Time.] ”

“ Mackay s works have had a very large circulation, and are characterised by the best qualities of the old school of geographical text-books, being full of facts systematically arranged, scrupulously verified, and illustrated by brief notes of general interest. In one instance he made an attempt to fasten the elementary facts on the minds of young scholars by producing a 'Rhyming Geography' (1873; new edit. 1876) , some of the stanzas of which, once read, are difficult to forget. ”

“ On the fall of Kars, the lord advocate was put up to reply on behalf of the government to the attack of Lord John Manners [q. v.] , and in 1859 he was selected by the government to compliment Mr. Speaker Denison on his re-election to the chair in the House of Commons. ”

“ Here his geological studies, chiefly in connection with rare fossils found in the old red sandstone in a quarry near Rhynie, brought him into communication with Hugh Miller, Sir A. Ramsay, of the Geological Survey, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and Dr. A. Keith Johnston, who recommended him as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1859. ”

“ As a freemason he was for many years provincial grand master of Ayrshire. On March 1897, after returning from a meeting of the fishery board in Edinburgh, he died suddenly of heart disease at Woodside. ”

“ The elder son of the second marriage, Henry Denison, died in 1881; the younger, John Cuthbert Denison-Pender, is managing director, director, or chairman of numerous telegraph and cable companies. The younger daughter, Marion Denison, married Sir George William des Vœux, governor of Hong Kong, 1887-91.
[Electrician, xxxvii. 334-5, 379-80, 469; Men of the Time; New Monthly Mag. vol. cxvii. (with portrait) ; Biograph, iii. 55-62, new ser. i. 268-276.] ”

“ In recognition of his services to the empire Queen Victoria made him in 1888 a K.C.M.G., when Lord Derby presided at a banquet given in his honour, and in 1892 he was promoted to a grand cross of the same order. ”