Introduction
Prof Robert WallaceFRSE FLS FRSGS FRPSE FHAS LLD (24 June 1853–17 January 1939) was a 19th/20th-century Scottish agriculturalist and contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Life
He was born on 24 June 1853 at his ancestral home, Wallace Hall in Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, the 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 University of Edinburgh graduating with an MA around 1872. He then spent ten years farming his father's estates.
From 1882 to 1885 he was Professor of Agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.
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. His proposers were Robert Gray, John Wilson, Peter Guthrie Tait and Henry Alleyne Nicholson.
In 1900 he was living at 5 Mansfield Place in Edinburgh's New Town.
In 1906 he was chiefly responsible in the creation of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture.
In 1910 he was living at 21 East Claremont Street.
From 1915 to 1917 he conducted a correspondence on the treatment of German prisoners-of-war with President Woodrow Wilson of the United States.
He retired in 1922 but still had some roles: including representing Scotland in the 1923 World Dairy Congress in Washington D. C..
He died on 17 January 1939 aged 85.
Publications
- Farm Live Stock in Great Britain (1889)
- The Agriculture and Rural Economy of Australia and New Zealand (1891)
- Argentine Shows and Livestock (1904)
- Farming Industries of the Cape Colony
- 11th edition Encyclopaedia Britannica: entries on "Cattle", "Sheep". "Pigs" and "Horses" (1911)
- ODNB: William Fream (1912)
- ODNB: Eleanor Ormerod (1912)
- Heather and Moor Burning for Grouse and Sheep (1917)