Curated category
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
- James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell was three years old, and one phrase was never out of his mouth: "what's the go o' that?" His mother recorded it in 1834, describing a boy…
- Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin once jotted his thoughts about marriage on two scraps of paper, drawing two columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry".
- Walter ScottWalter Scott was born on the 15th of August 1771 in a third-floor apartment on College Wynd, a narrow alleyway in Edinburgh's Old Town, leading from the…
- John RoebuckJohn Roebuck of Kinneil died in Edinburgh on the 17th of July 1794, but he left behind a world his own hands had helped build.
- Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place in Edinburgh on the 13th of November 1850, into a dynasty of lighthouse engineers, and died at the age of…
- Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan Doyle arrived in Portsmouth in June 1882 with less than ten pounds to his name and no patients waiting for him.
- David HumeDavid Hume was born on the 7th of May 1711 in a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket, into a family that was, by his own account, far from…
- Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle arrived at the University of Edinburgh in November 1809 by walking one hundred miles from his home village in Dumfriesshire.
- John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell stood barely five feet five inches tall, and his political opponents never let him forget it.
- John Lynch (historian)John Lynch was born on the 11th of January 1927 in Boldon, a small town in County Durham, in the north of England. By the time he died on the 4th of April…
- Robert StephensonRobert Stephenson was born on the 16th of October 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle upon Tyne, to a father who would become known to history as the…
- Thomas AllinsonThomas Richard Allinson walked from Edinburgh to London in 1891, covering the distance in fifteen consecutive days at an average of 28.5 miles per day.
- Geoffrey HintonGeoffrey Hinton spent decades trying to convince the scientific world that the brain's approach to learning was the right model for machines.
- Samuel SmilesSamuel Smiles died on the 16th of April 1904 in Kensington, leaving behind a manuscript locked in his desk that no one was ever allowed to read.
- Philippa GregoryPhilippa Gregory was born on the 9th of January 1954 in Nairobi, then the capital city of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.
- Peter TrudgillPeter Trudgill was born on the 7th of November 1943 in Norwich, England, and grew up in the nearby area of Thorpe St Andrew.