When the University of St Andrews introduced the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1920, it was one of the first universities in the United Kingdom to offer the qualification. But how far did the degree further the…
Thomas 'Tammas Broon' Brown of Kelty, Fife was a promising scholar and keen boxer. When he matriculated at United College in 1920-21, he entered an environment vastly different to the coal-mining community he had grown…
John Hardie Wilson devoted his life to botany. He studied botany, taught botany, worked in botany, travelled to see botany, travelled to study botany, and travelled to see how other people studied botany. Wilson was a…
The life of Robert Craig (1882-1956), a Scottish geologist and academic, reflects both fundamental developments in the professional world of geology and the profound personal impacts of an undergraduate education from…
Edmund Langley Hirst arrived at St Andrews with ambitions of a degree in Classics. His experience in St Andrews’ chemistry laboratories during the First World War would shape his life as a scientific pioneer. There,…
The story of Maud Baden-Powell remains shrouded in the shadow of the mighty legacies of her family members and the “Baden-Powell” name. However, her life can be uncovered through the stories of those she was closest…
For Johan Gerard Ubbink, his year at University of St Andrews was more than a study abroad—it was a turning point that connected Dutch Reformed theology with wider international debates and set the stage for his later…
Minister Alexander Anderson, was celebrated as a hero by his community in Scotland when he was detained in Germany during the Great War… until he returned home and was labeled a traitor.
Helen Ross spent her adult life moving across the world as a minister’s wife, mother, teacher, and role model within her community. Like many women of her time, the work that defined her life was unpaid and largely…