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PREFACE
Soon after the death of
Dr. Maurice Paterson there arose among the members of the Moray House
Club a general feeling in favour of the issue of a Memorial Biography of
their great teacher. A Special Committee was appointed to make
arrangements, if possible, for the publication of such a Biography, and
the request was made that I should undertake to write it. The amount of
work and responsibility which that would involve, if the book were to be
in any way worthy of its subject, seemed to be indeed formidable, and to
require more both of leisure and of ability than I could hope to
command. Yet the request was not one to be lightly refused. As a
commission from my fellow-members in the Club it was a great honour. As
an opportunity of doing something to acknowledge, if not to requite, my
own indebtedness to Dr. Paterson and to Moray House it was a great
privilege. And so, doubtful as I still am as to the wisdom of the step,
I agreed to undertake the work, as in every sense a labour of love.
To write the personal life of Dr. Paterson would not meet the case. Most
men, as well as nations, who can be called happy, have no history. It
was as an Educationist, and above all as a Teacher, that he was known to
those who desired a Biography of him, and that he will be remembered by
a wider circle than even that of his old students, numerous as they are.
To give any adequate account, of his life work, therefore, there must be
some representation of the conditions under which it was begun, carried
on, and completed. And this involved the attempt to sketch, at least in
its relevant aspects, the outlines of over half a century, and that a
changeful half century too, of Scottish educational history. Such
historical matter is not, therefore, a mere frame to the picture; it is
the background, an essential part of the composition, and necessary to
the realization of its meaning. But the historical background, though
necessary, is confessedly imperfect ; in parts, indeed, it may be
inaccurate as well as incomplete, for to avoid both faults would have
required much more time than was at my disposal. The attempt, at least,
has been made to represent not only the man and his work, but the
conditions under which that work was done, and its significance for
Scottish education.
I wish to acknowledge here, with due gratitude, the valuable help which
has come to me from many quarters, some of it essential to the very
existence of the book, and all of it serving to make the work less
incomplete than it would otherwise have been. In particular, I wish to
express my obligations to the members of Dr. Paterson’s family and other
relatives for the material necessary for a personal biography and for
much other assistance; to Mr. Alexander Somerville, M.A., Secretary of
the Moray House Club, and also to the late Mr. John Watson, B.A., a
member of the Special Committee, but for whose untimely death the work
would have been more complete in several particulars; to the Rev. Dr. J.
Wilson Harper, Convener of the United Free Church Education Committee,
for access to the Minutes of that Committee; to the Rev. Dr. J. Kennedy,
Librarian, New College, for guidance with the official Church records;
to Mr. Charles Boog Watson, F.S.A. Scot., for permission to use material
from his Monograph on Moray House; to Mr. Hugh Cameron, M.A., F.E.I.S.,
Secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, for access to the
files of the Educational News; to Dr. Alexander Morgan, Rector of the
Provincial Training College, for the use of the College Library and
other help; to the Rev. Dr. George Steven, a member of Dr. Paterson’s
first class at Moray House, for valuable information; to all those whose
names are mentioned in connection with their individual contributions
throughout the book; to the many friends whose advice and encouragement
have helped, but who would prefer that their names should not appear;
and, finally, to any whose names ought to appear, but have been omitted
through inadvertence.
It may not be out of place to make special mention of the kindness of
the Right Honourable Viscount Finlay, Dr. Paterson’s first pupil — first
in point of time, as he has remained first in point of distinction—who
has contributed by way of introduction to the book his reminiscences of
his first tutor.
After many delays the result is now before the members of the Moray
House Club and the wider circle of those who knew and reverenced “The
Rector.” The subject of the book will find for it a welcome among these,
whatever be its imperfections. Would that, for his sake, it had been
possible to say of the work, “ Exegi monumentum cere perennius” but a
more humble place must be assigned to it—a simple wreath, not even of
immortelles, to be laid upon his tomb in the name of all his old
students as s token of reverence, admiration, gratitude, and love.
JG.
62 Blacket Place, Edinburgh, June 24, 1921.
Maurice
Paterson
Rector of Moray House, A Memorial Biography by John Gunn, M.A., D.Sc.,
with an Introduction by the Right Hon. Viscount Finlay of Nairn, G.C.M.G.
(1921) (pdf) |
