Gordon Donaldson, (13 April 1913 – 16 March 1993) was a Scottish historian.

Life

He was born in a tenement at 140 McDonald RoadEdinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory, 1912 off

Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the centre of the city to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the street to th ...

in northern

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 13 April 1913 the son of Rachel Swan and Magnus Donaldson. He was of

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

descent. Donaldson attended Broughton Elementary School (adjacent to his home) and then the Royal High School of Edinburgh (1921–31), before being awarded a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

to study at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He also supplemented his income by undertaking some

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

ing. After graduating in 1935 with a first-class Honours Degree in History ( MA), he gained his PhD in 1938 at the

Institute of Historical Research The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hous ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he also won the David Berry Prize from the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

. Donaldson also has a

DLitt Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

degree. After working as an archivist at the

General Register Office for Scotland The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) ( gd, Oifis Choitcheann a' Chlàraidh na h-Alba) was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adopti ...

1938–1947, he was appointed to a lectureship in Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh, largely through the offices of

William Croft Dickinson William Croft Dickinson, CBE (28 August 1897 – May 1963) was a leading expert in the history of early modern Scotland and a writer of both children's fiction and adult ghost stories. Dickinson held the Chair of Sir William Fraser Profess ...

. This marked the beginning of Donaldson's 32-year academic career at the University. He served as a

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

from 1955, before succeeding Dickinson as

Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography Sir William N. Fraser, (18 February 1816 – 13 March 1898) was a solicitor and notable expert in ancient Scottish history, palaeography, and genealogy. Life Fraser's family came of the stock of farmers and craftsmen in The Mearns. He was ...

in 1963, which he held until his retirement in 1979. During his academic career, Professor Donaldson wrote or co-wrote over thirty books, and numerous articles and addresses. He also served at various times as President of the Scottish Ecclesiological Society, the Scottish Church History Society, the

Scottish History Society The Scottish History Society is a historical and text publication society, which promotes the study of and research in the history of Scotland. It was founded in 1886, as part of the late 19th-century revival in interest in Scottish national i ...

, the

Scottish Record Society The Scottish Record Society is a text publication society founded at Edinburgh in 1897, but with earlier roots as the Scottish section of the British Record Society (founded 1889). Since its establishment it has published numerous volumes of ca ...

, the Scottish Records Association, and the

Stair Society The Stair Society is a learned society devoted to the study of Scots law. It was instituted in 1934 "to encourage the study and to advance the knowledge of the history of Scots Law," and is named for James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair, the sev ...

. In 1978 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This socie ...

. His proposers were

Norman Gash Norman Gash (16 January 1912 in Meerut, British Raj – 1 May 2009 in Somerset) was a British historian, best remembered for a two-volume biography of British prime minister Sir Robert Peel. He was professor of modern history at the University ...

Geoffrey Barrow Geoffrey Wallis Steuart Barrow (28 November 1924 – 14 December 2013) was a Scottish historian and academic. The son of Charles Embleton Barrow and Marjorie née Stuart, Geoffrey Barrow was born on 28 November 1924, at Headingley near Leeds. ...

, Sir Fraser Noble, and

John Cameron, Lord Cameron John Cameron, Lord Cameron, KT, DSC, PRSE, FBA (8 February 1900 – 30 May 1996) was a Scottish judge and President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1973 to 1976. Life Cameron was born in London, the son of John Cameron SSC NP, a so ...

. He was also an Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society, and in 1992 he received the St Olav's Medal from the King of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. When Professor Donaldson retired, he was appointed Historiographer Royal in Scotland. He could talk about any character in Scottish history as if he knew them personally. It was his love of the sea and ships, born from his childhood in Shetland, that took him to Dysart in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

in his retirement, where he lived in a 17th-century Pan Ha' apartment. "I cannot pass my old age without the sight of the sea and ships," he said. He died in

Windygates Windygates is a small village and surrounding district in central Fife, Scotland. The district encompasses the following villages, farms and estates; Wellsgreen Farm, Little Lun Farm, Woodbank Farm, The Maw (a former mining community on the Stan ...

on 16 March 1993. He never married and left no family.

Bibliography

* (with James Kirk) Scotland's history : approaches and reflections, 1995 * A Northern Commonwealth: Scotland and Norway, 1990 * The faith of the Scots, 1990 * (with David John Breeze) A queen's progress : an introduction to the buildings associated with Mary Queen of Scots in the care of the Secretary of State for Scotland, 1987 * Scottish church history, 1985 * All the Queen's men : power and politics in Mary Stewart's Scotland, 1983 * Four centuries : Edinburgh University life, 1583–1983, 1983 * (with Ann Morton) British National Archives and the local historian : a guide to official record publications, 1980 * (with Robert Morpeth) A dictionary of Scottish history, 1977 * Scotland : the shaping of a nation, 1974 * Mary, Queen of Scots, 1974 * (with Robert Morpeth) Who's who in Scottish history, 1973 * Scottish historical documents, 1970 * The first trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1969 * The memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill...., 1969 * Scottish Kings, 1967 * The Scots overseas, 1966 * General Editor, The Edinburgh History of Scotland, 1965 ** Vol I, ''Scotland: The making of the Kingdom'', A.A.M. Duncan ** Vol II, ''Scotland: The Later Middle Ages'', R. Nicholson ** Vol III, ''Scotland: James V to James VII'', G. Donaldson ** Vol IV, ''Scotland: 1689 to the Present'', W Ferguson * Scotland: James V to James VII, 1965 * Scotland: church and nation through sixteen centuries, 1960 * The Scottish Reformation, 1960 * Shetland Life under Earl Patrick, 1958 * Common errors in Scottish history, 1956 * The making of the Scottish prayer book of 1637, 1954 * The Court Book of Shetland 1602–1604, 1954 * Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 1561–1572, 1949 * (with John Lauder, C Macrae) St. Andrews formulare, 1514–1546, 1944

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson, Gordon 1913 births 1993 deaths 20th-century Scottish historians People from Leith Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Scottish archivists