Montrose Academy - Alumni

Alumni

• the botanist Robert Brown (1773–1858),
• politician Joseph Hume (1777–1855), and James Mill (1773–1836) historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher attended the school during the same period.
• Alexander Gibson (botanist)
• the poet Alexander Smart (b.1798), satirised the teaching methods of James Norval at Montrose Academy in his poem, "Recollections of Auld Lang Syne".
• Edward Balfour, (1813–1889) was a surgeon, orientalist and pioneering environmentalist. * Captain Sir Alexander Burnes (1805–41), traveller and explorer also had connections with India
• A number of former pupils are connected with the Scottish Renaissance cultural movement of the early twentieth century. This includes the writers John Angus (1906–1968), Fionn MacColla and Willa Muir (1890–1970) (wife of Edwin Muir);
• the poets Helen Cruickshank (1886–1975) and Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978)
• the artists Edward Baird (1904–49) and William Lamb (1893–1951).
• George Soutar (1864–1939), scholar of Classical Greek
• William Allen Neilson (1869–1946), writer and Professor of English.;
• Prof James Simpson Silver CBE (1913–1997), former James Watt Chair of Mechanical Engineering from 1967-79 at the University of Glasgow; and Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1962-6 at Heriot-Watt University\Heriot-Watt College
• Prof Arthur James Beattie (1914–1996), Professor of Greek from 1951-81 at the University of Edinburgh, and fellow and lecturer in Greek and Classics at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge (1946–51);
• Robert Cormack (1946-), Professor of Sociology and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (1996–2001) of the Queen's University of Belfast.
• gynaecologist John Chassar Moir CBE (1900–1977), Nuffield Professor of Obstetrics and Gynæcology from 1937-67 at the University of Oxford, and who led research in the 1930s which resulted in the discovery of ergometrine.
• electrical engineer James Blyth (1838–1906), was an early pioneer of wind power who built the world's first wind turbine that generated electricity in 1887, although lacked a control mechanism (later developed by the American Charles F. Brush)
• Major General George Alexander Renny (1825–1887) received the Victoria Cross.
• accountant William Barclay Peat (1852–1936) studied law at Montrose Academy, whose company founded in 1870 became Peat Marwick, and later the worldwide KPMG company in 1987 when it merged with the Dutch firm KMG
• footballer Gordon Smith (1924–2004) who played for Hibernian F.C.
• Sir Alan Rothnie CMG, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1972-6, and to Switzerland from 1976–80