John Meiklejohn
John Miller Dow Meiklejohn (/ˈmiːkəldʒɒn/; 11 July 1836 – 5 April 1902) was a Scottish academic, journalist and author known for writing school books.
Life
Born in
22 December 1864 he married Jane Cussans (1841–1922), daughter of T. Cussans late HEIC, at St Luke's Church, Kings Cross. London. They had (at least) five sons and three daughters.[3]
Among their sons were Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn (1870–1913), who won the Victoria Cross during the Boer War, and Arnold Hilary Meiklejohn (1874–1932). The fifth son Lieutenant Hugh Bernard Meiklejohn, Royal Navy, died on 17 May 1902, aged 26.[2]
In 1874 John Miller Dow Meiklejohn was appointed as assistant commissioner to the endowed schools commission for Scotland, and made educational suggestions in its report. In 1876 Andrew Bell's trustees instituted a Chair of the theory, history, and practice of education at the University of St Andrews, and Meiklejohn was appointed as the first professor. There he influenced educational ideas at a time when the national system of education was undergoing a reconstruction.[2]
Meiklejohn unsuccessfully contested the
Works
When still under 20, Meiklejohn produced for
Writing numerous school texts and reading books for Blackwood's educational series (1883–7). and similar works, Meiklejohn also published:[2]
- The Book of the English Language (1877);
- The Golden Primer, parts I and II (1884; 1885) with illustrations by Walter Crane.
- Meiklejohn, J.M.D. (1886). The English Language: its Grammar, History, and Literature. London and Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. .
- The British Empire: its Geography, Resources, Commerce, Land-ways, and Water-ways (1891).
Meiklejohn's series of school books, which was inaugurated in 1894, included a book on Australasia (1897) and The Art of Writing English (1899; 4th edit. 1902). There followed English literature: a New History and Survey from Saxon Times to the Death of Tennyson (posthumous, 1904). His geographical manuals adapted the works of James Cornwell.[2] He also wrote " A New History of England and Great Britain " in two volumes, covering the arrival of Julius Caesar to the death of Queen Victoria.
Meiklejohn also wrote An Old Educational Reformer, Dr. Andrew Bell (Edinburgh, 1881), and he edited the Life and Letters (1883) of William Ballantyne Hodgson. He was a contributor to the Journal of Education and controversialist.[2]
His books, like Meiklejohn 1886 The English Language: its Grammar, History, and Literature are still published, for instance in a 2012 edition, edited by a Fraser McKen in Victoria, Canada.[4]
Notes
- ^ "Edinburgh Post Office annual directory, 1832-1833". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34977. Retrieved 27 February 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- OCLC 857385123.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow". Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
External links
- Works by John Meiklejohn at Project Gutenberg
- Works by John Meiklejohn at Faded Page (Canada)
- Works by John Meiklejohn at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about John Meiklejohn at Internet Archive