JAMES GALBRAITH
THE Librarian of Glasgow University is the second son of
the late Rev. Donald Galbraith, and was born at Campbeltown 25th March, 1860.
His father, a Highlander and a native of Islay, was for some years minister of
the Congregational Church in the Kintyre capital, but he joined the Free Church,
and died in 1863, before obtaining a fixed charge in his new denomination. His
widow, Margaret M'Killop Galbraith, whose forbears belonged to Stirlingshire,
then removed to Dunoon, where her son received the elements of his education at
the Free Church and other schools. In 1872 the household came to Glasgow, and he
prosecuted his studies further at Hillhead House Academy under Mr. Sutherland,
and at Glasgow University. In 1874 he became an assistant in the library of the
University. At that time, and till his death in 1901, Professor William Purdie
Dickson, occupant of the Divinity Chair, was curator of the library. He was a
fine scholar of the old-fashioned type, and under him Mr. Galbraith received his
training. The appointment of Sub Librarian came in 1886, and that of Librarian
in 1905.
Mr. Galbraith has contributed stories and sketches to various
periodicals - Chambers's Journal, The Gentleman's Magazine, and others - and he
has printed for private circulation a little volume, "The Emeritus Professor,"
and published another anonymously. In 1906, when the quarter-centenary of the
historian George Buchanan was celebrated by the University and Municipality of
Glasgow, Mr. Galbraith afforded most valuable help in connection with the
exhibition held in the University Library.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)