Sir Archibald Alison

Born to Rev. Archibald Alison and Dorothea Gregory - herself a former companion of the literary hostess Elizabeth Montagu - Alison’s life was steeped in intellect and influence from the start. He was called to the Scottish bar in 1814, and became advocate depute by 1822. In 1834, he was appointed sheriff of Lanarkshire, moving to Glasgow the following year, where he remained until his death at Possil House in 1867.

Alison’s public career was marked by firm interventions in labour unrest, including the cotton spinners’ strike of 1839, the miners’ strike in Airdrie (1842), and the Chartist demonstrations of 1848. A man of order, yet not without contradictions, he supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War despite what many considered his humanitarian values.

As a historian and political writer, he made his name with works such as the 10-volume History of Europe during the French Revolution (1833–1842) and a later 14-volume continuation. He also penned Principles of Population and their Connection with Human Happiness (1840), a direct attack on Malthusian liberalism, and his autobiography, Some Account of My Life and Writings, completed in 1862 but published posthumously in 1883. Disraeli famously satirised him as “Mr Wordy” in Coningsby.

He served as rector of Marischal College in 1845 and rector of the University of Glasgow in 1850.

His funeral in 1867 drew over 100,000 people, a testament to the complex legacy of a man described by historian Michie as “a transitional figure in a transitional age”. His enduring legacy is immortalised not only in his writings and public service but also in a distinguished marble bust housed at the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow.