William Gentle (headmaster)

William Gentle FRSE EIS (1877-1964) was a Scottish mathematician and physicist who served as Headmaster of George Heriot's School from 1926 to 1942. He was President of the Science Teachers Association in Scotland.[1]

Life

He was born in Dundee on 19 January 1877 the third child of William Gentle (1838-1890), a printer, and his wife, Marion Drummond Brand from Torryburn in Fife. He was raised at 12 Garland Place in Dundee.[2] He attended Rosebank School then Morgan Academy. In 1889 his family moved to 2 Blackwood Crescent in Edinburgh, a Victorian flat in the south side of the city. He thereafter attended George Heriots School then studied Mathematics and a variety of sciences at Edinburgh University graduating BSc in 1903. This included studying Geology under Prof James Geikie and Mathematics under Prof George Chrystal. In autumn 1903 he returned to George Heriots as a teacher of Maths and Physics.[3][4]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1908. His proposers were James Gordon MacGregor, David Fowler Lowe, Thomas Burns and John Brown Clark.[5] In the First World War he served as an officer in the Royal Field Artillery. He was wounded by shell-fire at Messines Ridge in 1917. Thereafter he concerned himself with supply of food to the troops, at one point finding himself responsible for feeding 7000 men.[6]

He returned to George Heriots after the war. In 1926 he succeeded John Brown Clark as Headmaster at a salary of £1000 per annum. He retired in 1942 and was replaced by William Carnon.

He died in Edinburgh on 31 March 1964.


Family

In 1924 he married Jessie Currie Ainslie.

References

  1. ↑ http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Search/historysearch.cgi?SUGGESTION=edinburgh&CONTEXT=1
  2. ↑ Dundee Post Office Directory 1877-78
  3. ↑ http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Gentle.html
  4. ↑ http://digital.nls.uk/directories/browse/pageturner.cfm?id=90701442&mode=transcription
  5. ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  6. ↑ http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Gentle.html
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