Robert Wallace (24 June 1853 – 17 January 1939) was Scottish professor of agriculture who worked at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and 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 ...

where he helped establish agricultural education. He travelled around the British colonies, examining agriculture and livestock husbandry, and wrote numerous books and contributed several entries related to farming for the 11th edition of ''

Encyclopaedia Britannica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

''.

Life

Wallace was born on 24 June 1853 in the ancestral family home, Wallace Hall in Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, the second son of Susan Reid and her husband, Samuel Wallace, a gentleman farmer. He was educated at Tynron Parish School and then Hutton Hall Academy near Bankend. He then studied at the

graduating with an MA around 1872. He then spent ten years farming his father's estates along with his brother Samuel Williamson Wallace (1855–1932) who became director of agriculture for the state of Victoria in Australia in 1902. From 1882 to 1885 he began to teach at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and served as a Professor of Agriculture. In 1885 he returned to Edinburgh as Professor of Agriculture and Rural Economy. In 1886 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

proposed by Robert Gray, John Wilson, Peter Guthrie Tait and

Henry Alleyne Nicholson Henry Alleyne Nicholson FRS FRSE FGS FLS (11 September 1844 – 19 January 1899) was a British palaeontologist and zoologist. Life The son of John Nicholson (1809–1886), a biblical scholar, and his wife Annie Elizabeth Waring, he was born a ...

. He worked towards the establishment of BSc degrees in agriculture and in helped found the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture in 1906. From 1915 to 1917 he corresponded with

President Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of P ...

of the

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on the ill-treatment of prisoners-of-war by Germany and sought American intervention. Wallace was Garton Lecturer on Colonial and Indian Agriculture (1900-1922) which helped spread his reputation across the colonies. Wallace travelled widely, to Italy and India in 1887, the latter resulting in a book ''India in 1887'' in which he examined livestock farming and agriculture in India. Wallace travelled to India in an unofficial capacity, with a special interest in livestock. He took numerous photographs and several notes were published in scholarly societies. Communicating with

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The storie ...

, he speculated on the skin colours of Indian cattle, commenting that they were predominantly dark skinned and suggested that they may have been selected for the same underlying but unexplained mechanism leading to darker human skin colour in the tropics. He travelled to the United States thrice between 1890 and 1898 with trips to Egypt (1891), Greece (1892) and South Africa (1895) in the same period. He corresponded extensively with

Eleanor Ormerod Eleanor Anne Ormerod (11 May 182819 July 1901) was a pioneer English entomologist. Based on her studies in agriculture, she became one of the first to define the field of agricultural entomology. She published an influential series of articles on ...

and edited a biography of her published in 1904. In 1900 he was living at 5 Mansfield Place in

Edinburgh's New Town The New Town is a central area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was built in stages between 1767 and around 1850, and retains much of its original neo-classical and Georgian period architecture. Its best known street is Princes Street ...

. From 1910 to 1923 he was living at 21 East Claremont Street. Wallace was a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. He was also a member of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. He retired in 1922 but continued to hold advisory positions and represented the Scottish Board of Agriculture in the 1923 World Dairy Congress in

Washington D. C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

He died at Mid Park House, Kincardine-on-Forth on 17 January 1939 aged 85.

Publications

*'' India in 1887'' (1888) *'' Farm Live Stock in Great Britain'' (1889) *'' The rural economy and agriculture of Australia and New Zealand'' (1891) *''Argentine Shows and Livestock'' (1904) *'' Farming Industries of the Cape Colony'' (1896) *11th edition

: entries on "Cattle", "Sheep". "Pigs" and "Horses" (1911) *ODNB:

William Fream William Fream (1854–1906) was an English writer on agriculture. Life Born at Gloucester, he was second son in the family of four sons and three daughters of John Fream, a builder and contractor, by his wife Mary Grant. As a boy he was a chorist ...

(1912) *ODNB:

(1912) *''Heather and Moor Burning for Grouse and

Sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

'' (1917) *''Letters to President Woodrow Wilson'' (1931)

References

External links

University of Edinburgh - library blogLetters to Woodrow Wilson

Papers of Professor Robert Wallace (1853-1939) - Archives-hub

Biographical Database of Southern African Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Robert 1853 births 1939 deaths People from Dumfries and Galloway Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh