Robert Blyth Greig

Sir Robert Blyth Greig FRSE FZS LLD MC (1874-1947) was a Scottish agriculturalist. He served as Chairman of the Scottish Board of Agriculture from 1921 to 1928 and was Secretary to the Department of Agriculture for all Great Britain from 1928 to 1934.

Life

He was born on 23 March 1874 in Balcurvie in Fife the son of George Greig, a farmer,[1] and his wife Helen Ann Martin.[2] He had two brothers: George Robert Greig and John Martin MacFie Greig.[3]

He studied at Edinburgh University and began lecturing at Marischal College in Aberdeen University in 1903 and continued here until 1910 (being succeeded by John Morrison Caie). During this period he lived at “The Croft” in Cults, a small village west of Aberdeen.[4]

In 1905 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir John Arthur Thomson, David James Hamilton, Robert Patrick Wright and Douglas Alston Gilchrist. He served as Vice President of the Society from 1924 to 1927.[5] He served as a Commissioner on the Scottish Board of Agriculture from 1912.[6] In 1921 he succeeded Sir Robert Wright as Chairman.[7][8]

In the First World War he served as a Staff Captain in the Royal Scots and saw action in France in 1916 and 1917.

He was created a Knight Bachelor in 1919. He received honorary doctorates from St Andrews University (LLD) and South Africa (DSc).[9]

In 1937 he was appointed a Director of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company.[10] He was also a Director of the Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway Company, and the Scottish Motor Traction Company. In later life he lived at “The Shaws” (10) Barton Avenue West, in western Edinburgh.[11] The house is a large detached Arts and Crafts villa set in substantial gardens, and is now a category B listed building.[12]

He died on 29 November 1947.[13]

Artistic Recognition

A photographic portrait of Sir Greig by Alexander Bassano is held by the National Portrait Gallery in London.[14]

Family

In 1903 he married Alice Maud Hunter. They had four children: George Marcus Greig (b.1904); Marion Greig (b.1906); and Robert Coventry Greig (b.1909) and John Martin Greig (b.1920)[15]

References

  1. ↑ The Physics of the Universe, Sir James Hopwood Jeans, 1928
  2. ↑ http://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/robert-blyth-greig_24897694
  3. ↑ http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Greig-451
  4. ↑ Aberdeen Post Office Directory 1909-10
  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. ↑ Whittakers Peerage, 1922
  7. ↑ Horticultural Trade Journal, 1921
  8. ↑ Gardeners Chronicle and New Horticulturalist, (journal) 1921
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ http://www.dmm.org.uk/news19/9371224p.htm
  11. ↑ The Worlds Carriers and Carrying Trade Review (journal) 1938
  12. ↑ Cirty of Edinburgh Council: Listed Building records
  13. ↑ Railway Gazette International, December 1947
  14. ↑ http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp129538/sir-robert-blyth-greig
  15. ↑ http://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/robert-blyth-greig_24897694
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