The University of St Andrews is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the third-oldest university in the English-speaking world. St Andrews was founded in 1413 when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy. Along with the universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, St Andrews was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century.
The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given annually, the medal is the oldest Royal Society medal awarded and the oldest surviving scientific award in the world, having first been given in 1731 to Stephen Gray, for "his new Electrical Experiments: – as an encouragement to him for the readiness he has always shown in obliging the Society with his discoveries and improvements in this part of Natural Knowledge". The medal is made of silver-gilt and awarded with a £25,000 prize.
Earl of Dumfries is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was originally created for William Crichton, 9th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar, in 1633, and stayed in the Crichton family until the death of the fourth countess in 1742, at which point the title passed to first the Dalrymple and then the MacDouall families before finally being inherited by the Marquesses of Bute, where it remains today.
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, was a Scottish landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, and architectural patron.
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait and held the position of Professor of Natural History at University College, Dundee for 32 years, then at St Andrews for 31 years. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, was knighted, and received the Darwin Medal and the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal.
The SIS Building, also called the MI6 Building, at Vauxhall Cross houses the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6), the United Kingdom's foreign intelligence agency. It is located at 85 Albert Embankment in Vauxhall, London, on the bank of the River Thames beside Vauxhall Bridge. The building has been the headquarters of the SIS since 1994.
St Leonards School is a co-educational private boarding and day school for pupils aged 4–19 in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Founded in 1877 as St Andrews School for Girls Company, it adopted the St Leonards name upon moving to its current premises, the site formerly occupied by the University of St Andrews’ St Leonard's College, in 1883.
Percy Faraday Frankland CBE FRS was a British chemist.
Robert Crichton was a 16th-century Scottish Catholic cleric.
David Panter, Scottish diplomat, clerk and bishop of Ross, was the illegitimate son of Patrick Paniter, secretary to James IV; his mother was Margaret Crichton, illegitimate daughter of William Crichton, 3rd Lord Crichton and widow countess of Rothes.
Sir Robert John Sawers FRUSI is a British intelligence officer, diplomat and civil servant. He was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a position he held from November 2009 until November 2014. He was previously the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2007 to November 2009.
Sir James Walker FRS FRSE FCS LLD was a Scottish chemist. He worked mainly on inorganic and physical chemistry. His major contribution was in the study of chemical reaction kinetics based on a study of the reactions converting ammonium cyanate to urea which was published in 1895 along with Frederick J. Hambly (1878-1960).
Dame Alice Rosemary Murray, was an English chemist and educator. She was instrumental in establishing New Hall, Cambridge, now Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, and was the first woman to hold the office of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
Christopher Nicholson Johnston, Lord Sands FRSE was a Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland and Unionist Party (Scotland) MP for the Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities constutuency between two by-elections in 1916 and 1917. He was an expert on Church Law and represented the Church of Scotland on many occasions.
John Guthrie Tait V.D. was a Scottish educator who became principal of the Central College of Bangalore prior to the First World War. In his early adulthood, Tait was a notable sportsman playing rugby union as a forward for Cambridge University and represented the Scotland international team twice between 1880 and 1885. As well as being a talented rugby player, Tait was, like his brother Frederick Guthrie Tait, a notable amateur golfer.
Julian Marshall was an English music and print collector, tennis player and writer.
Alistair Murray Moffat is a Scottish writer and journalist, former director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and former Rector of the University of St Andrews.
Events from the year 1883 in Scotland.
Edith Ellen Humphrey was a British inorganic chemist who carried out pioneering work in co-ordination chemistry at the University of Zurich under Alfred Werner. She is thought to be the first British woman to obtain a doctorate in chemistry and the first chemist to synthesize a chiral inorganic complex.
Mary Watson was a British chemist. She was one of the first two women to study Chemistry at the University of Oxford, the other one being Margaret Seward.
