University of Journal

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH JOURNAL Volume 48, Number One

Volume 48, Number One June 2017 XLIV: No. 3 JUNE 2010 June £14.00 2014 Graduates’Graduates’ Association Patron HRH The Princess Royal Honorary Presidents Cecily E Giles CBE Iain F MacLaren Timothy O’Shea Kt President S Michael Langdon Vice-President: Oonagh Gray Honorary Secretary: David A Lamb Honorary Treasurer: T Finlay Marshall Honorary Editor: Peter B Freshwater Immediate Past President: David A Lamb Honorary Accounts Examiner: Eric Brown Assistant Secretary: Joan H Meikle Executive Committee Members 2017-2018 Andrew M Bell William M Buchan Margaret D Cochran David R Gilmour Lucinda L Mackay Joyce E Richardson Helena P Shanks Sam Trett Student Representatives President Edinburgh University Students’ Association President Edinburgh University Sports Union Vice-President (Services) Edinburgh University Students’ Association Editorial Committee Ian Campbell (Reviews Editor and Convener) Peter B Freshwater (Honorary Editor) Stephen G Hillier OBE Lucinda L Mackay Iain F MacLaren Jack McLaren Joyce E Richardson J R Sutherland Ritchie Walker Ian Wotherspoon THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Malcolm M Wylie The Association acknowledges permission to use the drawing of the GRADUATES’ ASSOCIATION Old College by Lady Lucinda L Mackay University of Edinburgh Journal Volume 48: Number One June 2017 Contents

Ofce Bearers and Committee Members IFC From the Editor 3 Graduates’ Association News and Alumni News New Year Honours List 4 News of Members 5 Betrayal, the Murder of Captain Robert Nairac GC 5 New Executive Committee Members 6 University and Alumni Notes 7 Principal’s Foreword 9 Articles Being in the Right Place at the Right Time 11 Basil Skinner 1927-1995 16 Dr James Haig Ferguson and the Lauriston Home 17 Wikipedia and Edinburgh University 23 Memories of Dramsoc, 1959-1964 (Part 1) 31 UEGA Calendar 2018 38 Sharing Languages: Edinburgh Students work with Refugees in Germany 39 Confessions of a Conservationist 46 Reminiscences of Forty Years in the Edinburgh Printing Trade 53 New Writings from SUISS 60 Reviews 65 Obituaries 71 Programme of Events 78 Inserts 79 Notes for Contributors IBC Journals Received IBC Welcome to the Graduates’ Association OBC

The University of Edinburgh Journal is published twice a year and is sent to all members of the Graduates’ Association. Tel. 0131 650 4292/3; Website: www.uega.co.uk; Email: [email protected] The price to others is £14.00 each number, payable in sterling.

1 UK ISSN 0041-9567 Norman Wirzba, Food & Faith: a Theology of Eating. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp 266. Paperback. ISBN 9780521146241. £19.99. ven if you do not believe in Christianity, according to Norman Wirzba, Eyou still participate as a member of God’s creation through consuming his provision: food. Wirzba’s book, Food and Faith, explores the concept of food and addresses the challenges we humans face as a participating member of the created world in our post-modern context. The individualistic,

68 University of Edinburgh Journal 48: 1 (June 2017) 68 consumer-driven society causes its human inhabitants to generally degrade God’s good creation to a mere commodity. As a result, we might fnd it difcult see our steak dinners past its plastic wrappings to where the cow it came from and who cared for the cow. Wirzba also suggests that because humans were created to exist in community, choosing not to belong to each other makes us incomplete people. Without a fully integrated understanding of our food consumption, it would be difcult for us to realise that habits such as consuming fast food or eating on the go are acts of individualism: membership and community are now optional in our contemporary lives. The need to eat is a daily reminder of our creaturely mortality. Eating gives us life, but it also means death for the party that we are consuming. It allows us to be aware that we are never self-sustaining, and food is never cheap because it always requires the sacrifce of another. Wirzba proposes that when we consume, we too are also being consumed: what we ate becomes part of who we are, since our bodies continually shed cells and produce new ones from what we eat. This creates a transformative and mutually binding relationship between those who consume and those being consumed. We are not merely consumers with buying power, but rather, a part of the creational membership that demands us to be sacrifcial to other members of the creation. We cannot damage our planet without damaging ourselves, because all members of the creation are linked, whether we believe in it or not. Rather than setting out a list of prescriptive guidelines in how to eat responsibly, Wirzba gives his readers a compelling argument that will help reframe the way the readers view consumption, and ultimately, the purpose of their existence in the world. The purpose of our existence is more than just functional; it includes giving gratitude to our maker and being a blessing to other members of the created world. True humanism begins with recognising our dependence on and membership in the created community. Documentaries such as Food, Inc. may only present the current environmental and ecological problems associated with post-modern food production and consumption, but Food and Faith actually provides a solution: a God-centred worldview. Ann Gillian Chu

69 University of Edinburgh Journal 48: 1 (June 2017) 69 Reviewers: Ian Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Scottish and Victorian Literature at the University of Edinburgh and Reviews Editor of the Journal. Ann Gillian Chu graduated with MA (Hons) in English Language from the University. She is a Chartered Accountant who is currently completing Regent College’s Master of Divinity programme. Peter B Freshwater is former Deputy Librarian at the University of Edinburgh and Editor of the Journal. Wilson McLeod is Professor of Gaelic, in Celtic & Scottish Studies, in the School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures. John R Sutherland is a graduate of the University, works as a designer and digital illustrator for DS Design Studio Ltd, and is also Assistant Editor of the Journal.

70 University of Edinburgh Journal 48: 1 (June 2017) 70 UEGA Calendar 2018 For more information, please see pages 2, 38, and 78.

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Photography by Graeme Ross, Beautiful Edinburgh Photography. Published by the University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association. Old Medical School Design and layout by DS Design Studio Ltd.