Sir George Adam Smith (19 October 1856 – 3 March 1942) was a Scottish theologian. He was the Principal of the University of Aberdeen between 1909 and 1935 and an important figure in the United Free Church of Scotland.

Life

He was born in Calcutta, where his father, George Smith, C.I.E., was then Principal of the Doveton College, a boys' school in Madras. His mother was Janet Colquhoun Smith (née Adam). By 1870 the family had returned to Scotland and were living at Scagore House in Seafield, Edinburgh. He was educated at Edinburgh in the Royal High School. He then studied Divinity at the University of Edinburgh and the New College, graduating MA in 1875. After studying for summer semesters as a postgraduate at the University of Tübingen (1876) and the University of Leipzig (1878) and travelling in Egypt and Syria, he was ordained into the Free Church of Scotland in 1882 and served at the Queen's Cross Free Church in Aberdeen. In 1892 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament subjects in the Free Church College at Glasgow. In 1900 (at its creation) he moved from the Free Church of Scotland to the United Free Church of Scotland. In 1909, he was appointed Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, a post he held until his retirement in 1935. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1916, and was knighted in the same year. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1916-17. In 1917, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Horne, Cargill Gilston Knott, Ben Peach and John Sutherland Black. He was appointed a Chaplain-in-Ordinary to King George V in 1933, and reappointed by King Edward VIII and King George VI. From 1924 to 1938 he was Patron of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen. He died at home, "Sweethillocks" in Balerno south-west of Edinburgh on 3 March 1942. He is buried with his wife and children in the north-east corner of Currie Cemetery in south-west Edinburgh.

Family

In 1889 he married Alice Lillian Buchanan (1866-1949), daughter of Sir George Buchanan MD FRS. They had seven children:

Works