George Adam Smith

Who was George Adam Smith?

Sir George Adam Smith FBA, Scottish theologian, was born in Calcutta, where his father, George Smith, C.I.E., was then Principal of the Doveton College, a boys' school.

He was educated at Edinburgh in the Royal High School, the University of Edinburgh and the New College. After studying for summer semesters at the University of Tübingen and the University of Leipzig and travelling in Egypt and Syria, he entered the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland and was appointed professor of Old Testament subjects in the Free Church College at Glasgow in 1892. In 1909 he was appointed principal of the University of Aberdeen, a post he held until his retirement in 1935. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916, and was knighted in the same year. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1916-17. Most of his papers are held in the National Library of Scotland, in Edinburgh.